( 

VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


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BRONZE  CHARIOTEER  FOUND  AT  DELPHI 


VACATION  DAYS 
IN  GREECE 


BY 

RUFUS  B.  RICHARDSON 

FORMERLY  DIRECTOR  OF  THE  AMERICAN  SCHOOL  OF 
ARCHAEOLOGY,  ATHENS 


ILLUSTRATED 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 
1904 


Copyright,  1903,  by 
CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

Published,  September,  1903 


TROW  DIRECTORY 
PRINTING  AND  BOOKBINOINQ  COMPANY 
NEW  YORK 


XLo 

MY  SON 

THE   COMPANION  OF 
MY  TRAVELS 


PREFACE 


TOURING  a  residence  of  eleven  years  in  Greece 
JL/  I  have  formed  the  habit  of  writing  to  certain 
periodicals  descriptions  of  my  journeys.  The  occa- 
sion for  making  a  book  out  of  these  articles  was  the 
suggestion  on  the  part  of  many  members  of  the 
American  School  of  Classical  Studies,  at  Athens, 
who  had  shared  these  journeys  with  me,  that  I 
should  do  so,  and  so  make  the  descriptions  accessi- 
ble to  them.  I  yielded  to  this  suggestion  all  the 
more  readily  from  the  consideration  that  my  wan- 
derings have  taken  me  into  many  nooks  and  cor- 
ners not  usually  visited  by  those  whose  stay  in  the 
country  is  short. 

Having  seen  the  sunrise  from  most  of  the  moun-  . 
tain-tops  of  the  country,  having  forded  many  of  its 
rivers,  and  having  caught  the  indescribable  color  at 
early  dawn  and  at  evening  twilight,  from  the  deck 
of  coasting  steamers,  all  along  these  fascinating 
shores,  I  felt  it  only  right  that  I  should  try  to  con- 
vey to  others,  less  fortunate  than  myself,  some  pict- 
ure, however  inadequate,  of  all  this  experience  and 
enjoyment.    All  that  is  here  set  down  is,  however, 

vii 


PREFACE 


but  a  part  of  a  larger  picture  that  is  ever  present  in 
my  memory. 

For  the  most  part  I  have  avoided  what  has  been 
most  frequently  described.  Athens,  Olympia,  and 
the  much-visited  Argive  plain,  I  have  not  touched 
upon,  because  I  did  not  wish  to  swell  the  book  by 
telling  thrice-told  tales.  I  tell  of  what  I  have  most 
enjoyed,  in  the  hope  that  readers  may  feel  with  me 
the  charm  of  this  poet's  land,  which  has,  more  than 
any  other,  "  infinite  riches  in  a  little  room." 

The  slight  alterations  that  I  have  made  in  the 
original  form  of  the  descriptions  was  made  with  the 
design  of  bringing  them,  in  a  measure,  up  to  the 
present  time.  I  have  also  arranged  them  on  a 
geographical  thread,  running  from  the  Ionian 
Islands,  through  Northern  Greece  to  the  Pelopon- 
nesus. The  two  larger  articles,  on  Sicily  and  Dal- 
matia,  are  not  simply  tacked  on.  They  belong  to 
the  subject,  inasmuch  as  Sicily  was  an  important 
part  of  Hellas,  as  the  Greeks  called  their  country, 
and  inasmuch  as  Greek  colonies  once  skirted  the 
greater  part  of  the  coast  of  Dalmatia. 

In  regard  to  the  spelling  of  proper  names,  I  have 
tried  to  shun  unusual  appearances.  But  I  have 
great  objection  to  changing  all  the  Greek  endings 
in  os  into  us,  just  because  the  Romans  did  so.  I 
also  object  to  changing  the  Greek  k  into  c  where  it 
will  surely  be  pronounced  as  an  s.  In  the  case  of 
names  that  have  become  a  part  of  our  English 

viii 


PREFACE 

speech,  I  have,  however,  admitted  these  changes. 
The  result  may  not  seem  satisfactory,  on  account  of 
the  lack  of  a  rigid  system  ;  but  I  trust  that  it  will 
be  pardoned. 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Corfu     .    „  3 

A  Day  in  Ithaca   13 

Delphi,  The  Sanctuary  of  Greece  24 

Dodona  34 

The  Bicycle  in  Greece  47 

Acarnania  54 

/Etolia  65 

Thermopylae  79 

Thessaly  90 

An  Ascent  of  the  Highest  Mountain  in  Greece     .  104 

A  Journey  from  Athens  to  Eretria  m 

taygetos  and  klth/eron   119 

Styx  and  Stymphalus  128 

An  Unusual  Approach  to  Epidauros  140 

Messene  and  Sandy  Pylos  151 

A  Tour  in  Sicily  173 

Dalmatia  208 


xi 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Bronze  Charioteer  Found  at  Delphi    ....  Frontispiece 

FACING 
PAGE 

Corfu.    Mouth  of  the  Old  Harbor  with  "  Ship  of  Ulys- 
ses' '  10 

Ithaca.    Polis  Bay  from  the  North  20 

Temple  at  Stratos  56 

Thermon.    Temple  of  Apollo  in  the  Foreground  ...  72 

Thermopylae.    From  the  West  86 

Meteora  Monasteries  100 

Sparta,  with  Taygetos  in  the  Background  120 

The  Stygian  Pool  130 

Theatre  at  Epidauros  146 

Bay  of  Navarino,   with   Old   Pylos  to  the  Right  and 

Sphakteria  to  the  Left  158 

Stone  Quarry  at  Syracuse  Called  Latomia  dei  Cappucini  186 

So-called  Concordia  Temple  at  Girgenti  194 

Cattaro  214 

Spalato.  Palace  of  Diocletian.  South  Front  .  .  .  .222 
Clissa   .  234 

Map  of  Sicily  and  Dalmatia  173 

Map  of  Greece  at  end  of  volume 

xiii 


§ 

VACATION   DAYS    IN  GREECE 


CORFU 


IT  is  great  good  fortune  to  spend  a  week  in  Corfu 
on  the  way  to  Greece.  Seeing  it  from  one  end 
to  the  other,  wandering  through  its  olive  forests  and 
vineyards,  brings  on  a  mild,  or,  in  some  cases,  a 
wild,  intoxication  without  wine.  What  words  fit  the 
surrounding  beauty  but  "  Islands  of  the  Blessed," 
"  Elysium,"  "  Garden  of  Eden/'  "  Paradise  "  ?  It  is 
not  Heaven,  after  all,  for  one  sees  here  the  poor, 
lame,  blind,  begging  for  small  alms;  but,  as  long  as 
earth  holds  such  corners  as  Corfu,  it  is  not  all  cursed. 

To  the  traveller  who  has  felt  the  intoxication  of 
such  a  region,  and  is  impelled  to  report  something 
of  it,  the  impotence  of  words  comes  home  with 
special  force.  Naught  but  the  painter's  art  seems 
adequate  to  report  Corfu.  And,  furthermore,  paint- 
er as  well  as  poet  might  here  well  feel  the  weak- 
ness of  his  art.  It  is  a  great  boon  to  have  had 
this  realm  of  beauty  brought  upon  the  retina  of  the 
eye,  and  so  communicated  to  the  soul. 

One  may,  perhaps,  be  allowed  to  group  the  im- 
pressions that  Corfu  makes,  and  report  them  with  a 
plainness  that  aspires  only  to  the  office  of  a  photo- 
graph, resigning  the  attempt  at  coloring. 

Before  the  eye  lies  one  Corfu — the  Corfu  of  to- 

3 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

day;  but  before  the  mind  are  brought  two  others — 
the  Kerkyra  of  Greek  history  and  the  Scheria  of 
Homer.  The  two  latter  compete  with  the  former, 
and  refuse  the  present  beautiful  scene  a  monopoly 
of  attention. 

But,  first,  to  be  just  to  the  present  Corfu.  The 
traveller  who  has  never  been  east  of  Italy,  which 
was  my  case  at  the  time  of  my  first  visit  in  1890, 
feels  that  he  is  here  passing  for  the  first  time  the 
bounds  between  Europe  and  the  Orient.  The 
streets  and  squares  of  the  city,  which  contains  a 
population  of  about  30,000 — about  one-third  of 
the  population  of  the  whole  island — swarm  with 
figures  clad  in  the  most  wonderful  costumes,  men 
and  women  vying  with  one  another  in  display  of 
colors.  The  Corfiotes  themselves  contribute  largely 
to  this  display  of  costumes.  From  across  the 
narrow  strait  come  from  Epirus  many  Albanians, 
with  their  big  white  skirts  and  their  kingly  air, 
some  for  trade  and  a  quick  return,  and  some  for  a 
longer  stay.  From  the  same  quarter  come  the  no 
less  picturesque  people,  partly  Greek  and  partly 
Wallachian — but  who  can  give  the  component  parts 
of  the  blood  of  these  people  of  Epirus  ? — who,  hav- 
ing attempted  to  secure  the  consummation  of  what 
the  Congress  of  Berlin  decreed,  incorporation  with 
Greece,  were  treated  as  Turks  usually  treat  insur- 
gents, and  were  then  living  as  refugees  in  Corfu, 
awaiting  the  hour  when  Moslem  rule  shall  recede 

4 


CORFU 


from  the  shores  of  Europe.  Some  of  these  men's 
costumes  are  ragged  and  dirty,  but  with  what  an  air 
the  men  walk  in  them.  It  is  not  a  swagger,  but  a 
king's  gait.  A  well-dressed  European  gentleman  can 
as  little  compete  with  these  men  for  attention  as 
the  Berlin  palace  can  compete  with  the  picturesque 
ruins  of  Heidelberg.  The  clergy,  who  seem  numer- 
ous enough  here  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every 
creature,  with  their  long  black  gowns  and  high  stiff 
caps,  make  quite  a  feature  in  the  throng.  The 
military  officers  are  also  numerous  and  brilliantly 
dressed,  but  are  too  much  like  ordinary  Europeans 
to  attract  particular  notice. 

The  vegetation  here  is  also  Oriental  —  oranges, 
lemons,  figs,  forests  of  cactus  and  giant  aloes 
abound.  The  four  or  five  million  olive-trees,  many 
sixty  feet  high,  are  the  characteristic  features  of  the 
island.  They  form  a  beautiful  background  for  the 
tall,  dark-green  cypresses.  But  the  vine  presses  hard 
upon  the  olive.  It  is  great  good  fortune  to  be  here 
in  the  time  of  the  grape  harvest,  even  if  one  must 
miss  the  oranges  and  the  olives.  One  day  in  Sep- 
tember I  walked  to  Palaeokastritza,  an  old  cloister 
on  a  rock  looking  out  on  the  Ionian  Sea,  sixteen 
miles  from  the  city.  The  way  was  through  a  con- 
tinuous vineyard  full  of  laborers.  At  this  season  of 
the  year  there  is  hardly  a  drop  of  running  water  in 
the  island.  There  are  places  where  springs  and 
brooks  and  even  rivers  have  been  and  will  be  again, 

5 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

but  there  are  none  there  now.  The  water  in  the 
wells  and  cisterns  looks  suspicious.  But  one  has  a 
substitute  for  water  that  is  just  about  as  cheap.  For 
copper  coin  of  the  value  of  two  cents  a  woman  gave 
me  a  pile  of  grape  clusters,  enough  for  four  men. 
On  my  return  I  managed  to  signify  with  my  poor 
Greek  to  a  man  riding  on  a  load  of  grapes  that  I 
would  like  to  change  places  with  him.  For  three 
miles  I  rode  stretched  out  on  the  top  of  crates  full 
of  grapes,  resting  my  tired  feet,  eating,  by  the  per- 
mission of  the  driver,  from  the  top  of  the  crates, 
while  from  the  bottom  the  precious  juice  oozed  out 
and  trickled  into  the  dusty  road.  I  felt  that  I  was 
playing  Dionysos.  Then  it  was  that  the  vintagers, 
many  women  and  few  men,  came  trooping  pictu- 
resquely from  the  fields.  They  looked  so  happy  that 
it  seemed  as  if  the  contagion  of  joy  rested  in  the 
vine.  It  seemed  as  if  a  touch  of  music  would  have 
converted  them  into  a  Dionysiac  chorus. 

If  Corfu  had  no  classical  history,  it  would  still  be 
historically  interesting.  It  has  been  spared  that 
curse  which  rested  so  long  on  the  rest  of  Greece — 
Turkish  occupation.  The  Turks  dashed  their  forces 
in  vain  in  two  memorable  sieges  against  its  rock 
forts.  The  high  degree  of  culture  here,  as  com- 
pared with  the  rest  of  Greece,  outside  of  Athens,  is 
partly  due  to  this  exemption.  But  there  have  been 
stimulating  influences  from  without.  Rome,  Byzan- 
tium, Naples,  Venice,   and   England  have  held 

6 


CORFU 


sway  here.  The  rule  of  Venice,  to  which  the  Cor- 
fiotes  gave  themselves  voluntarily,  as  they  had  for- 
merly done  to  Rome,  lasted  nearly  six  hundred 
years,  with  the  interruption  of  the  Anjou  episode. 
This  rule  was  mild  and  beneficent.  It  was  the  Ve- 
netians who  built  the  fortifications  which  kept  off 
the  Turks,  and  which  still  form,  though  to  a  less 
degree  than  twenty-five  years  ago,  the  characteristic 
feature  in  the  aspect  of  the  city. 

From  Waterloo  to  1864  England  exercised  a  pro- 
tectorate over  this  and  the  six  other  Ionian  Isl- 
ands. Ten  successive  Lord  High  Commissioners,  of 
whom  Gladstone  was  one,  and  whose  monuments 
profusely  deck  the  esplanade,  represented  here  the 
majesty  of  England.  The  English  built  the  pres- 
ent fine  system  of  roads — paid  for,  of  course,  in 
Ionian  money.  A  kindly  feeling  prevails  toward 
England  because  she  yielded  to  the  strong  desire 
of  the  inhabitants  for  union  with  the  kingdom  of 
Greece.  But  the  fact  that  the  English,  on  their  de- 
parture, blew  up  the  principal  fortification  of  the 
harbor  on  the  island  Vido,  and  carried  away  all  the 
guns  from  the  other  forts,  left  a  sting.  The  dis- 
mantled fort  was  paid  for  in  Ionian  money,  but  the 
exigencies  of  European  politics  demanded  the  dis- 
mantling. Austria  had  as  much  to  say  about  that 
as  England. 

But,  sweeping  away  the  name  of  Corfu,  which 
arose  in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  transferring  our- 

7 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

selves  back  of  all  this  foreign  occupation  and  cen- 
turies of  semi-barbarism,  let  us  introduce  ourselves 
to  the  Greek  Kerkyra  of  Thucydides.  Passing 
southward,  a  half  a  mile  or  so  from  the  esplanade 
of  the  present  city,  one  comes  along  an  isthmus  be- 
tween two  old  harbors  to  an  elevated  peninsula,  on 
which  now  stands  the  King's  villa  in  a  beautiful 
garden.  Here  one  is  overpowered  by  historic  asso- 
ciations. Here  lay  the  proud  Greek  colony  estab- 
lished by  Corinth  in  734  B.C.,  a  colony  that  first  set 
the  example  of  filial  ingratitude,  and,  feeling  itself 
stronger  than  the  mother  city,  joined  battle  with  her 
and  defeated  her  in  the  first  great  naval  battle  of 
Greeks  against  Greeks,  in  665  b.c.  From  this  ris- 
ing ground  the  eye  dimly  discerns  in  the  distance, 
near  the  mainland  opposite  the  southern  end  of  the 
island,  the  Sybota  Islands,  where  the  later  great 
naval  battle  between  mother  city  and  colony  in  the 
presence  of  an  Athenian  fleet  gave  the  occasion  for 
the  dreadful  Peloponnesian  war.  From  this  inner 
harbor,  now  abandoned  and  still,  nearly  silted  up 
and  yearly  submitting  to  the  encroachment  of  vines 
upon  its  borders,  the  proud  fleet  of  Alcibiades  and 
Nicias  sailed  for  Syracuse.  It  was  the  alliance  with 
Kerkyra,  the  key  to  the  voyage  to  Sicily,  that  lured 
the  Athenians  to  that  ruin. 

Little  of  this  Kerkyra  remains  above  ground. 
Perhaps  much  may  yet  be  found  below.  About 
twelve  years  ago  excavations  by  Carapanos  laid 

8 


CORFU 

bare  a  great  quantity  of  terra-cottas.  Perhaps  it 
was  a  terra-cotta  manufactory  that  he  discovered. 
The  ruins  of  an  old  Doric  temple  lie  on  the  surface 
of  the  ground  near  a  spring  in  an  olive  grove  on  the 
side  of  the  peninsula  looking  toward  the  mainland. 
The  situation,  100  feet  above  the  strait,  among  the 
olives  and  near  an  ancient  fountain,  makes  one  feel 
that  he  could  have  joined  in  doing  honor  to  the 
dryads  and  naiads  with  the  throng  that  used  to  meet 
here.  One  of  the  antiquarians  of  Corfu  has  lately 
advanced  the  view  that  these  remains  are  those  not 
of  a  temple  but  of  a  bath.    Blessed  bathers  ! 

It  was  not  bad  taste  for  the  King  of  Greece  to 
put  his  gardens  on  the  spot  of  the  Gardens  of  Al- 
kinoos.  If  I  were  King  of  Greece  I  would  try  to 
compound  with  my  subjects  to  take  the  business 
of  ruling  off  my  hands  and  let  me  keep  my  Corfu 
home.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Elizabeth,  the  Empress 
of  Austria,  sought  relief  from  her  troubles  in  her 
villa  on  the  other  side  of  the  inner  harbor. 

When  a  part  of  the  Venetian  works  was  being 
removed  in  1843,  where  the  isthmus  between  the 
two  old  harbors  joins  the  present  city,  there  was 
found  a  circular  monument  about  twenty  feet  in 
diameter,  ending  in  a  flat  cone,  and  containing  an 
inscription  running  almost  around  the  layer  of 
stones  just  below  the  coping.  It  reads  thus  :  "This 
is  the  monument  of  Menekrates,  son  of  Tlasias,  of 
CEantheia  by  birth.    The  people  erected  it  in  his 

9 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


memory,  "for  he  served  them  well  as  proxenos" 
(consul)  "and  he  perished  in  the  sea."  This  with 
more,  making  six  hexameters,  now  much  more  ob- 
scured than  when  first  discovered  and  copied,  I 
made  out  by  the  help  of  a  manual  of  epigraphy  in 
the  rays  of  the  sun  just  rising  over  the  mountains 
of  Epirus.  The  archaic  forms  of  the  letters  make  it 
a  remarkable  inscription,  which  may  be  dated  as  far 
back  as  600  b.c.  As  I  read  this  inscription,  a  cen- 
tury older  than  the  Persian  war,  and  two  centuries 
before  Thucydides,  I  thought,  here  surely  one  is  in 
contact  with  Greek  antiquity. 

The  next  day,  in  an  upper  room  of  the  building 
used  for  both  library  and  high  school,  in  company 
with  the  director,  Professor  Romanos,  and  Pro- 
fessor Papageorgios,  a  gentleman  who  deserves  the 
title  philoxenos,  I  read  the  other  inscriptions  of 
Corfu  which  have  not  been  lost  in  the  labyrinths  of 
the  British  Museum  or  elsewhere.  Some  of  these 
are  of  about  the  same  age  as  that  on  the  Menek- 
rates  monument,  but  very  clear  as  well  as  exceed- 
ingly interesting  on  account  of  the  old  forms  of  the 
letters.  They  are  mostly  tomb  inscriptions,  telling 
of  the  grief  which  all  the  world  has  felt  over  the 
loss  of  the  brave  and  the  good. 

One  need  not  linger  too  long  over  Kerkyra.  It 
is  a  state  which  we  cannot  love.  We  cannot  forget 
that  before  Salamis  it  held  its  fleet  off  the  southern 
point  of  the  Peloponnesus,  waiting  to  see  which 

10 


CORFU 


way  the  great  struggle  was  going  to  incline.  When 
Athens  concluded  the  alliance  with  her  at  the  open- 
ing of  the  Peloponnesian  war,  many  at  Athens  felt 
it  to  be  an  unholy  alliance,  and  that  the  burden 
of  hatred  thus  shouldered  was  almost  a  counter- 
balance to  the  winning  of  the  second  navy  in  Greece. 
Thucydides  draws  an  awful  picture  of  the  decimat- 
ing feuds,  which  seemed  tinged  with  barbaric  fury, 
between  aristocracy  and  commons.  In  his  pages 
the  island  vanishes  from  view  bathed  in  blood. 

Long  before  the  time  of  Thucydides  the  natives 
of  this  island  stoutly  maintained  their  descent  from 
the  oar-loving  Phaeacians  of  Homer.  Their  land 
was  Scheria,  the  home  of  Alkinoos.  This  belief, 
in  which  they  took  so  much  pride,  really  made  them 
great  as  a  naval  power ;  and  he  who  would  to-day 
take  away  the  charm  of  Homeric  tradition  from  this 
land,  which  has  been  made  by  it  into  holy  ground, 
would  work  it  a  greater  injury  than  one  who  should 
despoil  it  of  its  olive-trees.  Of  course,  our  enjoy- 
ment of  Homer  does  not  depend  on  localizing  his 
story : 

' 6  Was  sich  nie  unci  nirgends  hat  begeben 
Das  allein  veraltet  nie. 1 1 

And  yet  the  story  of  the  Odyssey,  localized  here 
from  gray  antiquity,  one  likes,  while  here,  to  be- 
lieve ;  to  read  as  if  there  had  been  nobody  to  bring 
up  any  objections  to  its  geography,  or  to  reason 

ii 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

about  its  geography  at  all — to  read  it,  in  short,  with 
Corfiote  eyes  and  Corfiote  fancy. 

Does  not  the  very  ship  which  Poseidon  turned 
into  stone,  because  it  conveyed  Ulysses  home,  still 
stand  at  the  mouth  of  the  old  inner  harbor  ?  Yes- 
terday I  passed  the  bridge  over  the  Potamo,  where, 
according  to  Gregorovius,  Ulysses  was  cast  ashore, 
and  tumbled  out  of  the  stream  that  had  received 
him  to  sink  exhausted  in  his  long  sleep  under  the 
double  tree.  I  can  almost  go  farther  here  than  I 
am  asked  to  go.  Methinks  that  under  yonder  tree, 
which  looks  as  if  it  might  count  almost  any  num- 
ber of  centuries,  the  sturdy  swimmer  fell  asleep  and 
awoke  so  sweetly.  It  does  not  matter  that  another 
place  near  the  entrance  of  the  old  harbor  has  come 
to  honor  in  the  mouths  of  the  natives  as  the  spot 
of  the  meeting  between  Ulysses  and  Nausikaa. 
Our  mood  adapts  itself  kindly  to  either  locality. 
Somewhere  hereabouts  we  will  let  the  sweet  story 
have  a  local  habitation.  Let  fancy  for  the  hour 
hold  sway.  Thus  we  are  perchance  brought  nearer 
to  the  clever  voyager,  the  beautiful  maid,  the  gar- 
rulous old  king  guided  by  his  wife  in  the  midst  of 
his  sailor  people.  Ah  !  the  fiction  of  Homer  holds 
the  mind  in  more  abiding  thrall  than  the  facts  of 
Thucydides. 


12 


A  DAY  IN  ITHACA 


ITHACA  was  the  first  of  the  great  Homeric 
places  of  renown  to  "swim  into  my  ken,"  if 
it  can  be  said  to  have  swum  into  my  ken  when  I 
saw  it  by  the  light  of  the  full  moon  in  sailing  from 
Corfu  to  Patras.  But  I  became  acquainted  with 
Troy  and  Mycenae  long  before  I  really  appropriated 
Ithaca.  This  I  got  by  the  method  of  gradual  ap- 
proach, a  method  which  has  a  certain  charm  only 
granted  to  one  who  is  privileged  to  reside  a  series 
of  years  near  his  goal. 

On  a  journey  to  Dodona,  the  year  after  this  moon- 
light view,  our  steamer,  in  passing  from  Patras  to 
Prevesa,  put  in  at  Bathy,  officially  called  Ithaca,  on 
the  east  side  of  the  island;  and  I  had  just  one  hour 
ashore  which  was  more  tantalizing  than  satisfactory 
as  far  as  studying  the  topography  of  Ithaca  was  con- 
cerned ;  and  yet  one  may  believe  that  he  sees  in  the 
beautiful  bay  and  harbor  the  very  harbor  of  Phorkys, 
where  Ulysses  landed  after  his  twenty  years'  absence. 
The  cave  of  the  Nymphs,  where  the  jolly  Phaeacians 
laid  him  asleep  with  his  treasures  about  him  was  not 
visible  ;  but  we  were  told  that  this  is  now  farther  up 
the  hill. 

After  an  interval  of  several  years,  in  which  I  had 

13 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

passed  Ithaca  several  times  in  the  night,  I  set  foot 
on  it  again  in  a  more  satisfactory  fashion.  Tak- 
ing refuge  from  the  August  heat  of  Athens  in  the 
Ionian  Islands,  I  was  spending  a  few  days  in  Ar- 
gostoli,  the  chief  town  of  Kephallenia,  and  seized 
this  opportunity  to  approach  Ithaca  from  the  back 
side,  so  to  speak.  A  drive  of  four  hours  brought  us 
clear  across  from  the  west  side  of  Kephallenia  to  Sa- 
mos  on  the  east  side,  over  the  high  backbone  of  the 
island.  During  the  last  hour  of  the  journey,  the  de- 
scent, as  "  the  sun  was  setting,  and  all  the  ways  were 
growing  shady,"  our  eyes  were  fastened  upon  Ithaca 
lying  peacefully  in  the  bosom  of  Kephallenia — a 
beautiful  sight. 

As  we  had  planned  for  only  one  day  in  Ithaca,  we 
determined  to  make  it  a  long  one,  and  started  from 
Samos  in  a  sail-boat  at  half-past  two  in  the  morning; 
but,  although  the  sail  was  filled  most  of  the  time,  so 
gentle  was  the  breeze  that,  even  supplemented  by 
the  work  of  the  oars,  it  did  not  bring  us  to  Ithaca 
until  half-past  five.  My  boy  of  twelve  years,  com- 
panion of  many  of  my  wanderings  in  Greece,  was 
asleep  most  of  the  way,  but  broke  the  parallel  with 
Ulysses  by  waking  up  when  the  keel  touched  the 
shore. 

We  landed  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Aetos,  on  the  top 
of  which  Gell  and  Schliemann  place  the  city  of  Ulys- 
ses, but  deferred  climbing  this  until  we  might  see 
whether  our  time  and  strength  held  out,  and  pushed 

14 


A  DAY  IN  ITHACA 

at  once  for  our  main  goal,  some  ruins  near  Stauros, 
at  the  northern  end  of  the  island,  nine  or  ten  miles 
distant.  We  followed  all  the  way,  with  an  occasional 
cut-off,  the  fine  carriage  road  made  by  the  English, 
to  whose  occupation  the  Ionian  Islands  owe  most 
of  their  good  roads,  notably  the  one  on  which 
we  had  crossed  from  Argostoli  to  Samos,  which 
required  much  difficult  and  expensive  engineering. 
The  road  crossed  the  backbone  of  Ithaca  twice  at 
points  where  this  is  somewhat  low ;  but  in  the  last 
seven  miles  it  followed  the  western  shore  about 
half  way  up  the  steep  slope  which  runs  down  into 
the  sea,  leaving  almost  no  strip  of  level  coast.  In 
fact,  Ithaca  smiles  in  very  few  spots,  being  nearly 
all  mountain,  just  the  country  to  get  attached  to. 
Ulysses  naturally  enough  calls  it  "  rugged,  but  a 
good  bringer-up  of  boys,"  and  adds :  "  I  never 
could  find  anything  sweeter  than  my  native  land." 
In  one  respect  it  is  doubtless  somewhat  changed. 
As  we  passed  along  the  foot  of  the  principal  moun- 
tain of  the  island,  a  bare  height  of  over  2,600  feet, 
I  asked  a  peasant  its  name,  and  was  glad  to  hear 
him  answer  u  Neriton."  But  this  is  now  as  unde- 
serving of  its  constant  Homeric  epithet  of  u  leaf- 
shaking  "  as  is  Zakynthos  of  its  epithet  of  "  woody." 
The  denudation  of  the  Greek  mountains  is  a  sad 
theme,  and  is  most  strikingly  illustrated  in  the 
Ionian  Islands.  Mount  Aenos,  over  5,000  feet  high, 
on  Kephallenia,  had  until  about  the  beginning  of 

*5 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

the  present  century  its  slopes  covered  with  large 
pines,  which  were  known  in  all  the  world  as  Abies 
cephalonica.  But  at  that  time  a  destructive  fire 
swept  away  nearly  half  of  this  treasure  ;  and  two 
years  ago  about  one-third  of  the  remainder  went 
in  the  same  way.  What  has  occurred  here  goes 
on  every  summer  all  over  Greece ;  but  the  loss  is 
in  no  case  so  conspicuous  as  in  this.  I  have  seen 
Pentelicus  burning  for  three  days — a  brilliant  illu- 
mination for  Athens — and,  in  sailing  from  Poros  to 
Nauplia  in  midsummer,  I  counted  twenty-six  fires 
on  the  mountains  of  Peloponnesus ;  but  all  these 
could  do  nothing  more  in  the  way  of  damage  than 
to  help  on  a  little  the  aridity  into  which  Attica  and 
the  Argolid  are  helplessly  sinking.  Where  it 
scarcely  ever  rains  during  six  months  of  the  year, 
the  grass  and  weeds  become  like  tinder,  and  a  fire 
once  started  from  some  shepherd's  carelessness  is 
difficult  to  stop. 

Water  was  rather  scanty  on  our  road,  and  what 
we  got  came  from  cisterns.  Springs  are,  indeed, 
rare  in  Ithaca.  But  when  we  came  to  the  famous 
spring  Melanhydro  (Blackwater),  near  Stauros,  in 
the  hope  of  finding  something  fine,  we  found  the 
water  not  only  warm,  but  having  three-quarters  of  a 
very  ripe  tomato  in  it,  as  well  as  pieces  of  a  big  cac- 
tus stalk,  and  rather  full  of  little  pollywogs  besides. 
The  proper  care  of  springs  is  something  which  ,  the 

Greeks  do  not  seem  to  appreciate.    I  have  seen 

16 


A  DAY  IN  ITHACA 


the  famous  spring  Pirene  on  Acro-Corinth  treated 
even  worse  than  this. 

But  if  the  water  which  we  needed  for  our  eighteen- 
mile  walk  in  the  August  sun  wTas  bad,  we  found 
consolation  in  grapes.  I  suspect,  though  I  cannot 
verify  it  from  actual  weighing,  that  my  regular  al- 
lowance of  grapes  in  an  August  or  September  day's 
walk  in  Greece  is  ten  pounds.  One  rarely  pays  any- 
thing for  these,  inasmuch  as  they  are  much  cheaper 
than  New  England  huckleberries.  While  it  is  con- 
sidered contra  bonos  mores  to  take  them  without 
asking,  peasants  seem  always  glad  to  give  them.  On 
the  hottest  part  of  the  return  journey,  as  we  stopped 
at  a  house  and  asked  for  grapes,  the  man  of  the 
house  said  that  his  vineyard  was  two  kilometres  dis- 
tant, but  insisted  upon  going  to  it  at  once.  This  I 
could  not  allow,  whereupon,  in  spite  of  my  protests, 
he  got  upon  the  very  top  round  of  a  rickety  ladder, 
leaning  against  the  wall  of  his  house,  and,  at  the  risk 
of  his  neck,  pulled  down  from  a  vine  running  over 
a  high  trellis  two  clusters  which  he  feared  were  not 
ripe,  as  proved  to  be  the  case.  In  the  meantime  his 
wife  had  been  with  great  difficulty  restrained  from 
setting  before  us  eggs,  bread,  and  cheese,  which  we 
refused  on  the  ground  that  we  had  just  eaten.  To 
be  strictly  truthful,  I  ought  to  state  that,  not  being 
enough  used  to  the  Greek  language  to  discriminate 
fine  shades  of  meaning,  I  am  not  sure  but  that  the 
man  meant  to  send  his  wife  the  two  kilometres  in 

i7 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


question.  Greek  custom  would  incline  me  to  this 
supposition. 

Although  Ithaca  is  noted  for  its  hospitality,  this 
treatment  is  not  mentioned  as  an  isolated,  but  as  a 
typical  case  of  Greek  hospitality.  I  doubt  whether 
there  is  any  people  so  hospitable  as  the  Greek.  The 
longer  I  live  here  and  the  more  I  travel  about,  the 
more  I  am  impressed  with  this  hospitality.  It  is 
not  only  on  this  rugged  island  where  men  live  by 
"wresting  little  dues  of  wheat  and  wine  and  oil," 
M  an  ill-used  race  of  men,"  one  might  be  tempted  to 
call  them,  that  the  stranger  at  the  gate  must  come 
in  and  have  the  best  that  the  house  affords  ;  at 
Plataea,  six  years  ago  one  November  night,  a  house- 
holder received  the  American  School  at  Athens, 
carrying  more  mud  on  their  persons  than  it  is 
often  the  lot  of  four  men  to  carry,  into  the  only 
room  in  his  house  which  had  a  fire,  turning  out  his 
family,  who  were  evidently  enjoying  it,  to  pass  the 
night  in  a  colder  room.  And  they  seemed  to  take 
it  as  a  matter  of  course. 

But  I  have  wandered  from  our  goal.  I  had  ex- 
pected to  find  in  the  remains  near  Stauros  corrobo- 
ration of  my  belief  that  here  lay  the  Homeric  city. 
For  I  had  long  supposed,  with  Leake  of  the  older 
topographers,  and  Bursian,  Partsch,  and  Lolling  of 
the  later  ones,  that  it  must  be  here.  Here  are 
massive  walls,  rock-cut  steps,  ancient  cisterns,  and 
the  niches  in  the  rock  passing  under  the  name  of 

18 


A  DAY  IN  ITHACA 

the  "  School  of  Homer."  But  at  the  close  of  the 
day,  in  order  not  to  be  unjust  to  the  dissenters,  I 
climbed  Aetos,  and  saw  that  the  walls  there,  re- 
sembling those  of  Tiryns,  had  about  as  good  claim 
as  those  at  Stauros  to  be  regarded  as  those  of  a 
Homeric  fortress.  The  question  where  the  Odys- 
sey locates  the  city  is  not  at  present  to  be  decided 
by  remains,  but  by  certain  other  indications  which 
seem  to  point  to  the  region  of  Stauros. 

The  suitors  of  Penelope,  who  wished  to  kill  Te- 
lemachus  on  his  return  from  "  Sandy  Pylos,"  lay  in 
wait  for  him  on  an  island  called  Asteris,  "  midway 
between  Ithaca  and  rugged  Samos."  Opposite  the 
northern  end  of  the  island,  though  much  nearer  to 
Samos  (Kephallenia)  than  to  Ithaca,  is  the  only 
island  in  the  whole  strait,  needing  to  be  magnified 
a  good  deal  to  suit  the  story  of  the  Odyssey ; 
but  what  poet  ever  denied  himself  the  right  to  mag- 
nify ?  And  looking  toward  this  little  island  is  the 
only  harbor  on  this  (western)  side  of  Ithaca,  a  deep 
indentation  running  far  into  the  land,  now  called 
"  Polis  Bay,"  a  reminiscence  of  the  fact  that  a  city 
once  stood  here.  This  name  is  a  genuine  survival 
from  old  times,  and  not  a  revamping  of  a  classical 
name,  as  is  the  case  with  Mount  Neriton.  About  this 
bay  and  up  as  far  as  Stauros,  and  even  farther  to 
the  west  and  north,  is  the  main  smiling  spot  of  the 
island.  It  was  autopsy  that  I  wanted  more  than 
anything  else ;  and,  as  I  stood  on  the  rocks  near 

19 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

Homers  school,  autopsy  forced  upon  me  the  convic- 
tion that  here,  and  here  only,  must  have  been  the 
important  city  of  the  island,  the  city  from  which 
the  faithful  Paladin  of  Agamemnon  ruled  not  only 
Ithaca  but  also  Kephallenia.  Here,  amid  the  re- 
mains of  an  ancient  settlement,  one  looks  into  three 
harbors  about  equally  distant,  Polis  on  the  west 
side  of  the  island,  a  broader  one  on  the  east  side, 
now  called  Phrikes,  in  which  we  saw  a  good-sized 
vessel  anchored,  and  on  the  north  end  one  still 
more  capacious,  probably  the  Reithron  of  the  Od- 
yssey. The  situation  was  well  adapted  to  a  city 
ruling  the  island  and  possessing  easy  communica- 
tion with  the  coast,  east  and  west. 

It  is  not  so  very  many  years  ago  that  general 
scepticism  prevailed  about  Homeric  topography. 
But  now,  just  as  one  smiles,  in  listening  to  Dorp- 
feld's  masterly  exposition  of  the  thoroughly  exca- 
vated walls  of  Troy,  at  the  thought  that  "  if  Troy 
ever  stood "  was  catalogued  by  an  almost  contem- 
porary poet  with  insoluble  riddles,  like  "if  Israel's 
missing  tribes  found  refuge  here,"  so,  in  passing 
over  Ithaca  with  the  Odyssey  in  hand,  one  smiles 
to  think  that  not  long  ago  Hercher  could  maintain 
that  there  was  no  agreement  between  the  Ithaca 
of  the  Odyssey  and  the  Ithaca  of  reality.  It  may 
be  granted  that  Hercher  knocked  out  the  some- 
what visionary  Gell ;  but  he  did  not  touch  Leake  ; 
indeed,  it  seems  as  if  he  had  not  read  Leake  at 

20 


A  DAY  IN  ITHACA 

all.  There  is  one  passage  in  the  Odyssey  which 
seemed  to  support  Hercher,  in  which  Ithaca  is 
spoken  of  as  "a  low  island,"  and  as  "  lying  apart 
and  farther  to  the  west  than  Samos  and  Zakynthos." 
How  the  poet,  be  he  the  original  poet  of  the 
Odyssey  or  an  epigonos,  ever  happened  to  say 
this  of  Ithaca,  the  rugged  island  lying  close  up 
against  the  eastern  shore  of  Kephallenia,  no  one 
has  yet  satisfactorily  explained.  But,  apart  from 
this  Homeric  crux,  there  is  a  most  gratifying  coin- 
cidence between  "the  Land  and  the  Book."  The 
topography  of  Ithaca  has  gained  respect  in  pro- 
portion as  attempts  have  been  given  up  to  force 
Corfu  into  identity  with  the  land  of  the  Phaeacians. 

In  respect  to  Schliemann's  and  GelFs  acropolis  on 
Mt.  Aetos  at  the  narrowest  part  of  the  island,  it 
must  be  granted  that  this  was  an  important  fortress 
of  the  Homeric  period,  controlling  communication 
between  the  northern  and  southern  halves  of  the 
island,  as  well  as  the  nearest  approach  from  Samos, 
which  was  probably  always  in  antiquity  the  main 
city  of  Kephallenia.  But  that  the  main  city  of 
Ithaca  was  ever  on  this  eagle's  eyrie  is  in  accord- 
ance neither  with  antecedent  probability  nor  with 
the  poet's  story. 

It  is  curious  to  see  how  different  have  been  the 
estimates  of  the  height  of  this  mountain,  according 
as  one  wished  to  make  it  the  site  of  the  Homeric 
Ithaca  or  not.    And,  indeed,  the  figures  given  in 

21 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

different  books  which  might  be  supposed  to  rest  on 
measurements  vary  also.  Probably  the  figures  given 
by  Partsch,  380  metres,  are  correct.  This  would 
make  the  top  about  1,200  feet  above  the  sea  level, 
but  only  about  half  that  above  the  high  ground 
over  which  the  road  from  Bathy  passes  to  the  moor- 
ing place — it  can  hardly  be  called  a  harbor — oppo- 
site Samos.  Partsch  makes  merry  at  "  those  whose 
faith  can  not  only  remove  mountains,  but  also  make 
them  lower  than  they  actually  are,  and  who  speak 
of  the  run  up  the  steep  sides  of  Aetos  as  if  it  were 
only  a  matter  of  half  an  hour."  I  was  in  my  turn 
amused  to  find  that  in  my  eagerness  to  go  up  this 
height  and  down  again  as  soon  as  possible,  in  order 
to  take  our  boat  back  to  Samos,  I  had  made  the  as- 
cent in  considerably  less  than  half  an  hour.  Perhaps 
the  fleet-footed  shepherd  boy  who  led  me  up  may 
have  taken  me  along  a  good  deal  faster  than  Partsch 
would  have  gone  making  his  way  alone.  He  ought, 
however,  to  have  looked  out  not  to  spoil  a  good  case 
by  underrating  the  powers  of  English  pedestrians. 

At  half-past  three  we  reached  the  shore,  where 
our  boat  was  tied  by  the  stern  cables  waiting  for  us, 
and  we  set  sail  for  Samos  in  such  a  splendid  breeze 
from  the  north  which  had  just  sprung  up,  right  on 
our  quarter,  that  no  Homeric  ship  ever  sped  over 
the  waters  with  more  life  than  ours.  In  just  one 
hour  and  five  minutes  we  landed  in  Samos,  in  time 
for  me,  though  tired,  to  wander  before  dark  over 

22 


A  DAY  IN  ITHACA 


the  high  hills  containing  the  acropolis  of  Samos, 
the  remaining  walls  of  which  are  most  impressive. 

The  next  morning,  starting  with  a  carriage  at 
half-past  three,  we  were  at  eight  o'clock  in  Argos- 
toli.  During  the  slow  ascent  I  kept  my  eyes  fast- 
ened upon  Ithaca  every  moment  when  it  was  possi- 
ble to  do  so.  I  wanted  to  see  the  sunlight  once 
more  illumine  that  long  chain  of  four  separate 
peaks  stretched  out  in  the  sea  from  north  to  south  ; 
but  before  sunrise  we  had  already  got  into  the 
gorge  through  which  the  road  pushes  up  to  the  top. 
Our  first  sight  of  the  island  was  in  the  evening 
twilight  and  our  last  in  the  morning  twilight.  As 
I  thought  it  over  afterward  I  could  not  help  think- 
ing that  there  was  an  especial  propriety  in  this  ; 
for  was  not  Ithaca  pre-eminently  a  land  of  twilight? 

Note. — Since  excavating  near  Stauros  in  1901  without  finding  any 
Mycenaean  remains,  Professor  Dorpfeld  has  come  to  the  conclusion 
that  the  true  Homeric  Ithaca  was  the  Island  of  Leukas,  that  there  was 
a  grand  confusing  of  names  prior  to  Strabo,  so  that  what  was  really 
the  Homeric  Same  is  now  called  Ithaca,  and  what  was  really  Dulichion 
is  now  called  Kephallenia.  Something  like  this  had  been  previously 
suggested  in  order  to  find  a  place  for  the  Homeric  Dulichion,  and  also 
to  place  Ithaca  where  it  would  lie  "  farthest  out  to  the  darkness  "  and 
u  apart  from  the  other  islands."  In  these  two  points  Homer's  geogra- 
phy has  never  been  quite  satisfactory,  but  it  is  doubtful  whether  we 
shall  get  any  revision  of  it  which  will  be  entirely  satisfactory.  It  is 
possible  that  the  results  of  Professor  Dorpfelds  excavations  on  Leukas 
may  bring  to  light  such  Mycenaean  remains  as  to  make  the  scale  tip  in 
his  favor.  One  point  in  his  contention  seems  certain,  viz.,  that  Leukas 
is  geologically  an  island,  and  as  such  should  have  found  a  place  in  the 
Homeric  naming.    But  the  whole  question  is  adhuc  sub  judice. 

23 


DELPHI,  THE  SANCTUARY  OF 
GREECE 

AFTER  a  glorious  day  spent  at  Acro-Corinth, 
the  American  School,  four  persons,  set  out 
on  November  5,  1890,  for  a  ten  days'  trip  through 
Central  Greece.  The  first  point  of  interest  was 
Delphi. 

As,  in  entrance  into  some  fraternities,  a  rough  and 
ridiculous  initiation  increases  the  pleasure  of  mem- 
bership, so  in  the  present  case,  perhaps,  the  rough 
and  ridiculous  approach  to  Delphi  only  served  to 
increase  the  appreciation  of  the  glory  there. 

The  little  Greek  steamer  which  coasts  the  Corin- 
thian Gulf  lay  at  anchor  at  Corinth,  ready  to  start 
at  5  p.m.  But  though  it  was  so  near  that  one 
could  throw  a  stone  into  it  from  the  shore,  we 
paid  a  drachma  and  a  half  apiece  for  being  rowed 
on  board.  The  boatman  got  well  paid  for  the 
few  strokes  which  it  took  him  to  cover  that  short 
distance. 

We  paid  more  than  we  ought.  We  had  com- 
mitted the  fatal  error  of  asking  the  price  instead 
of  coolly  jumping  into  the  boat  and  paying  half 
a  drachma  apiece  when  we  reached  the  steamer. 
All  that  we  lacked  was  a  little  knowledge  of  the 
country,  the  language,  the  people,  and,  more  than 

24 


DELPHI,  THE  SANCTUARY  OF  GREECE 


all,  the  prices.  We  were  paying  for  our  tuition. 
Six  months  later,  when  I  was  much  better  in- 
formed, I  was  passing  Chalkis,  and  thought  I  would 
like  to  go  ashore  for  an  hour  or  so.  I  then  asked 
the  boatman,  by  way  of  testing  him,  what  he  would 
charge  to  take  me  ashore  and  bring  me  back  again. 
He  replied,  "  Six  drachmas."  I  laughed,  and  said, 
"  Half  a  drachma."  "  All  right,"  said  he,  "  jump  in." 
When  one  "  knows  the  ropes  "  the  boatmen  are  very 
tractable;  but  the  stranger  is  at  their  mercy,  because 
nowhere  in  Greece,  not  even  at  Piraeus  or  Patras,  is 
there  a  pier  for  a  steamer  to  tie  up  to.  All  this 
seems  managed  in  the  interest  of  the  boatmen. 

After  ascertaining  that  we  should  have  to  disem- 
bark at  a  very  early  hour  the  next  morning  at  Itea, 
the  ancient  Chaleion,  the  port  of  Delphi  (the  ticket 
agent  said  five  o'clock,  and  the  steward  of  the  boat 
said  three  o'clock),  we  all  selected  state-rooms  with 
care,  undressed  and  went  to  bed  at  the  early  hour  of 
seven,  with  instructions  to  the  steward  to  wake  us 
half  an  hour  before  the  time  of  disembarkation. 
Sound  slumber,  which  comes  to  men  wearied  with 
tramping,  often  makes  hours  seem  short ;  but,  when 
we  were  waked,  it  seemed  incredible  that  we  could 
have  had  the  night's  sleep  that  we  had  so  carefully 
planned.  Our  watches  soon  gave  the  dreadful 
corroboration  to  our  suspicions.  It  was  only  nine 
o'clock  in  the  evening. 

The  boat  had  skipped  Antikyra,  shortening  the 

25 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

journey  by  several  hours,  and  was  going  to  stop 
only  half  an  hour  before  passing  over  to  Galaxidhi, 
the  ancient  Oeantheia.  In  all  my  experience  in 
Greece  there  was  only  one  other  case  of  a  steamer 
being  ahead  of  time.  But  oh  !  the  hours  both  day 
and  night  that  I  have  spent  waiting  for  belated 
steamers ;  and  no  inconsiderable  part  of  these  hours 
has  been  spent  at  I  tea.  Three  times,  after  patience 
had  failed,  I  have  taken  a  sail-boat  across  to  the 
Peloponnesian  shore,  to  strike  the  more  regular 
communication  by  rail. 

When  we  were  fairly  landed,  the  ridiculous  part  of 
our  initiation  was  completed,  and  the  rough  part  be- 
gan. I  would  fain  pass  over  that  night  in  the  hotel 
at  Itea.  It  was  no  worse,  however,  than  almost  any 
night  that  the  traveller  passes  in  places  called  by 
courtesy  hotels  in  the  country  towns  of  Greece. 

Itea,  after  being  for  years  the  despair  of  travel- 
lers, received,  as  a  result  of  the  increased  travel 
brought  about  by  the  excavation  of  Delphi,  two 
very  good  lodging-houses,  and,  instead  of  being 
known  as  cheap  and  nasty,  it  became  a  place  where 
one  could  be  fleeced  in  good  style. 

The  next  morning  we  proceeded  a  mile  or  more 
along  the  shore  to  the  east,  until  we  identified  the 
ruins  of  the  ancient  port  of  Delphi,  Kirrha,  which, 
we  are  told,  the  Amphictyons  twice  destroyed  in  a 
rage,  though  it  seems  quite  un-Greek  to  do  so  un- 
reasonable a  thing  as  to  destroy  the  harbor  through 

26 


DELPHI,  THE  SANCTUARY  OF  GREECE 


which  one  must  continue  to  land.  Leaving  Kirrha, 
and  putting  ourselves  about  on  the  track  of  the  old 
visitors  of  the  holy  place  of  Delphi,  who  came  from 
Peloponnesus,  we  passed  through  miles  of  the  finest 
olive  orchard  in  Greece  to  the  site  of  the  ancient 
Krissa  at  the  head  of  the  plain,  the  old  Homeric 
town  which  appears  to  have  yielded  reluctantly  to 
rising  Delphi  the  control  of  this  region.  After  the 
joy  of  the  plain  came  the  joy  of  climbing  the  rugged 
rocks  for  hours  until  it  seemed  as  if  Delphi  must  be 
in  the  clouds.  This  double  reward  for  the  double  ini- 
tiation suddenly  ended  when,  turning  a  sharp  spur  of 
rock,  we  found  ourselves  in  the  grand  natural  thea- 
tre which  was  Delphi.  Even  to  one  who  had  never 
read  of  it,  and  did  not  know  what  it  was  to  the 
Greeks,  the  mere  sight  of  the  place  must  still  be  one 
of  the  finest  views  in  the  world.  But  to  one  who 
has  come  to  look  on  the  sanctuary  of  ancient  Greece 
it  is  this  and  more  also.  The  Phaedriadae,  which 
rise  sheer  behind  the  wretched  village  of  Kastri, 
shutting  out  the  higher  snow-clad  Parnassus  from 
view,  seem  like  no  earthlv  rocks.  The  Pleistos 
seems  like  no  earthly  river,  as  it  murmurs  far  below, 
as  if  about  to  tell  the  sea  that  it  had  passed  Delphi. 
Mount  Kirphis,  fronting  the  Phaedriadae,  and  closing 
the  great  theatre,  seems  privileged  to  have  been  al- 
lowed to  stand  silently  gazing  on  all  that  went  on 
in  that  holy  place,  and  to  have  been  its  appointed 
warder,  shutting  it  in  from  the  eyes  of  all  who 

27 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

would  not  struggle  up  here  through  the  mountain 
passes. 

But  from  reverie  to  fact  the  little  village  of  Kastri 
rudely  recalls  us.  Villagers  inform  us  of  a  "  megale 
catastrophe."  Two  nights  before,  at  midnight,  a 
mountain  torrent  had  come  down  over  the  Phaedri- 
adae,  tearing  through  the  village,  sweeping  away  two 
of  the  miserable  houses,  and  rendering  several  of  the 
adjacent  ones  unsafe.  One  child  was  killed,  and 
everybody  thoroughly  frightened. 

All  inquired  anxiously  whether  there  was  not  a 
chance  of  the  village  being  soon  purchased  for  pur- 
poses of  excavation.  Visitors  from  the  neighbor- 
ing town  of  Arachova,  who  seemed  happy  that  they 
were  not  living  in  Kastri,  said  that  probably  many 
Kastriots  would  soon  leave  their  homes  anyway,  and 
move  to  Arachova. 

The  most  important  thing  in  Delphi  was,  of 
course,  the  temple  of  Apollo,  in  which  wras  the  orac- 
ular chasm,  influences  from  which  controlled  Greece 
so  long.  Fragments  of  the  temple  lay  all  around, 
near  and  in  the  houses  built  above  its  ancient 
floor.  This  floor  was  so  near  the  surface  of  the  soil 
that  one  saw  quite  a  portion  of  it.  By  digging 
away  a  few  feet  of  earth  in  one  place,  an  opening 
was  laid  bare,  by  which  one  could  pass  down  into  a 
series  of  vaults  beneath  this  floor.  Pomtow,  who 
visited  Delphi  in  1884,  counted  himself  as  the  third 
man  who  had  ever  crawled  in  through  these  vaults. 

28 


DELPHI,  THE  SANCTUARY  OF  GREECE 


But  the  exploit  subsequently  became  so  common 
that  a  fixed  price  of  twelve  drachmas  was  allowed 
workmen  for  removing  the  earth.  Perhaps  a  hun- 
dred persons  have  undergone  this  crawling  process, 
from  which  one  came  out  covered  with  dirt  from 
head  to  foot,  but  satisfied  that  he  has  seen  all  that 
was  to  be  seen  of  the  world-renowned  temple. 

The  village  school  was  a  striking  sight.  At- 
tracted by  a  loud  buzzing  sound  near  the  house  of 
the  keeper  of  antiquities,  with  whom  we  lodged,  we 
ventured  in  at  the  open  door  whence  the  sound  pro- 
ceeded, and  found  about  forty  boys  apparently  re- 
peating something  after  the  teacher,  who,  clad  some- 
what like  the  shepherd  in  the  play  of  "GEdipus,"  as 
given  at  Harvard  University,  looked  like  anything 
but  a  learned  man.  He  proved  to  be  a  gentleman, 
however,  in  spite  of  his  rough  mantle.  After  school 
we  ventured  with  him  into  his  house,  from  which 
his  family  had  fled,  because  a  river  of  mud  had 
flowed  through  the  cellar,  and  left  the  walls  in  a 
tottering  condition.  He  seemed  to  possess  but  lit- 
tle, and  yet  he  took  down  from  the  rafters  a  clus- 
ter or  two  of  half-dried  grapes,  and  gave  them 
to  us,  exhibiting  the  time-honored  Greek  hospitality. 

But  to  return  a  moment  to  the  school.  No 
sooner  had  we  arrived  than  a  dead  silence  fell  upon 
the  crowd.  The  boys  took  seats  on  the  long 
benches  resting  on  the  bare  earth,  and  reading  of 
Herodotus  in  modern  Greek  began.    The  first  boy, 

29 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


with  a  voice  pitched  as  high  as  a  steam  whistle  of 
small  dimensions  and  high  pressure,  started  off  to 
see  how  much  he  could  read  in  a  given  time.  If  he 
saw  a  period  coming,  he  would  catch  for  breath,  and 
dash  over  it  like  a  locomotive  putting  on  extra  steam 
to  take  an  up  grade.  To  our  utter  amazement,  the 
next  boy  beat  the  first  both  in  pitch  and  rapidity. 
The  teacher,  without  a  word,  watched  the  process 
with  apparently  rising  satisfaction.  Meanwhile  a 
boy  passed  to  and  fro  in  the  front  benches,  keeping 
things  wonderfully  quiet  by  striking  the  ears  of  the 
smaller  boys  with  a  little  twig. 

No  sooner  had  we  returned  to  our  quarters  on 
our  first  evening  in  Delphi,  and  begun  to  read  the 
register  of  people  who  had  visited  the  house  in  the 
past,  than,  just  as  we  were  noticing  the  name  of 
Bayard  Taylor,  a  peal  of  thunder  reverberated 
through  the  great  gorge,  followed  by  peal  on  peal, 
with  rain  and  lightning,  lasting  nearly  all  night.  It 
was  so  impressive  that  we  wished  to  expose  our- 
selves to  the  rain  in  order  the  better  to  see  and 
hear.  A  sheltering  roof,  however,  was  the  best 
place  from  which  to  enjoy  the  storm  as  much  as  was 
possible  while  disturbed  by  thoughts  of  the  poor  vil- 
lagers, exposed  to  further  sufferings  and  fears.  He 
who  has  not  seen  Delphi  in  a  thunder-storm  has  not 
seen  it  in  all  its  majesty.  It  seems  made  for  such 
spectacles. 

The  excavations   inaugurated    by  the  French 

30 


DELPHI,  THE  SANCTUARY  OF  GREECE 

School  at  Athens,  soon  after  our  visit,  have  changed 
the  aspect  of  Delphi  in  many  respects.  As  the 
work  has  proceeded,  I  have  made  annual  pilgrim- 
ages thither.  While  one  finds  the  results  of  intense 
interest,  and  sees  each  year  some  additional  impor- 
tant building  brought  to  light,  temple  upon  temple, 
the  theatre,  the  stadion,  the  numerous  treasuries  of 
the  different  cities  of  Greece  with  their  sculptured 
adornment,  it  is  still  the  place  itself  that  impresses 
one  most  of  all.  If  one  walks  through  the  ruins 
just  at  night-fall,  one  need  not  ask  why  the  Greeks 
considered  this  spot  sacred.  It  is  in  itself  "an  awful 
place.,,  Olympia  lies  in  a  charming  sunny  valley. 
It  was  as  appropiate  to  the  brilliant  games  that  were 
held  there  as  was  Delphi  to  the  deep  religious 
transactions  and  the  awful  oracle  that  spoke  the 
doom  of  men  and  states.  There  were  games  at 
Delphi,  as  there  was  religion  at  Olympia ;  but  at 
Olympia  the  games  became  at  least  as  prominent  as 
the  worship  of  Father  Zeus,  while  at  Delphi  it  was 
always  religion  that  was  paramount. 

It  would  be  contrary  to  the  plan  of  this  book  to 
describe  in  full  the  excavations  of  Delphi.  It  may 
be  said  that  the  results  were  in  some  ways  disap- 
pointing to  some  people.  From  certain  passages  in 
ancient  authors  sprung  a  belief  that  statues  in 
Delphi  might  be  as  "  thick  as  hops."  The  five  hun- 
dred bronze  statues  that  Nero  is  said  to  have  carried 
away  must  have  made  only  a  small  hole  in  the 

3i 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

total  number  of  seventy-three  thousand  reported  by 
Pliny  to  have  been  still  remaining  in  his  time. 
Even  if  one  suspects  an  error  in  the  text,  we  know 
that  Demetrios  of  Phaleron,  who  passed  for  a  fairly 
modest  man,  had  three  hundred  and  sixty  statues 
erected  to  him  at  Athens  during  the  short  time  in 
which  he  directed  the  affairs  of  Athens.  And  taking 
this  as  a  sample  of  the  way  statues  multiplied,  we 
can  the  more  readily  swallow  Pliny's  numerals.  At 
any  rate,  Delphi  is  classed  by  him  with  Olympia  and 
Athens  as  the  third  of  the  places  where  statues  most 
abounded.  But,  for  many  years  after  Pliny's  time, 
Delphi  doubtless  lay  open  to  plunder.  The  bronzes 
were  melted  up  and  the  marbles  made  into  lime. 

The  yield  of  statues  from  the  excavations  has, 
it  is  true,  been  smaller  than  many  expected  it  to  be. 
But  it  would  be  most  absurd  to  say  that  the  work 
has  been  disappointing.  The  bronze  charioteer 
alone,  probably  a  subsidiary  figure  in  the  group  dedi- 
cated by  a  member  of  the  Syracusan  family,  Gelon, 
Hieron,  Polyzalos,  would  have  set  the  stamp  of  suc- 
cess upon  the  enterprise.  And,  apart  from  this,  there 
is  a  whole  museum  full  of  statuary  of  the  utmost  im- 
portance in  the  history  of  sculpture.  Tombs  of  the 
Mycenaean  period  with  rich  contents  have  also 
added  to  the  interest  of  the  excavations,  more  im- 
portant in  some  aspects  than  those  of  Olympia.  It 
will  be  years  before  the  enormous  quantity  of  in- 
scriptions can  be  published. 

32 


DELPHI,  THE  SANCTUARY  OF  GREECE 

The  French  excavators  are  to  be  congratulated 
upon  the  ease  with  which  they  got  rid  of  their 
earth.  Their  dumping-cars  were  easily  brought  to 
the  edge  of  the  gorge  of  the  Pleistos,  and  the  con- 
tents shot  down  thousands  of  feet,  never  to  trouble 
them  more.  How  I  have  envied  them  when  work- 
ing at  Corinth,  where  one  of  the  chief  difficulties 
has  been  to  find  a  proper  dumping-place  for  the 
enormous  deposit  of  from  twenty  to  thirty  feet  of 
earth.  At  Olympia,  also,  the  brook  Kladeos  was 
very  serviceable  in  carrying  off  the  dump.  It  is  a 
pity  that  one  cannot  always  find  an  excavation  site 
close  by  a  serviceable  river. 


33 


DODONA 


MY  friend,  Mr.  Arthur  Hill,  the  British  Vice 
Consul  at  Piraeus,  being  about  to  make  a 
business  trip  through  Epiros  in  the  spring  of  1891, 
invited  me  to  join  him.  Without  this  invitation  I 
should  have  travelled  Greece  very  unsymmetrically, 
leaving  out  all  the  country  west  of  the  great  Pindos 
range.  It  is  fair  to  call  this  Greece,  although,  in 
defiance  of  the  arrangements  of  the  treaty  of  Berlin, 
most  of  it  remains  politically  Turkish. 

At  Patras  we  took  a  little  Greek  coasting  steamer 
late  at  night,  and,  with  only  one  incident  worth 
mentioning,  arrived  a  little  after  noon  the  next  day 
at  Prevesa  on  Turkish  territory.  The  one  incident 
was  a  stop  of  an  hour  in  the  wonderfully  retired 
harbor  on  the  east  coast  of  Ithaca.  If  Homer  had 
this  in  mind  in  describing  the  harbor  of  Phorkys  he 
might  well  say  that  the  ships  needed  no  cable  there. 
Even  half  an  hour  on  shore  for  a  short  Homeric 
reverie  was  something  to  be  thankful  for.  On  our 
boat  was  a  man  who  looked  for  all  the  world  like 
the  weather-beaten  Ulysses  returning  from  his 
twenty-years'  absence.  To  my  disgust  he  did  not 
get  off  at  Ithaca  to  hunt  up  Penelope,  but  went  on 
to  Leukas. 

34 


DODONA 


Arrived  in  Prevesa,  I  was  made  aware  that  we 
were  off  the  beaten  track  by  being  informed  that  a 
letter  which  I  had  hastily  written  to  send  back  to 
Athens  would  not  even  start  for  six  days.  This  im- 
pression was  deepened  by  the  information  that  the 
British  Consul  at  Prevesa  had,  during  the  seventeen 
years  of  his  sojourn  there,  never  thought  of  going 
to  Joannina,  two  days  into  the  interior.  This  was 
our  goal.  The  excitement  of  visiting  a  country 
absolutely  devoid  of  tourists  is  so  rare  that  one  may 
be  pardoned  for  giving  way  to  it. 

Of  course  one  cannot  travel  here  without  an 
escort.  Two  mounted  men  accompanied  us  every- 
where in  Turkey,  and  when  we  again  came  over  the 
Greek  frontier  we  were  met  by  a  sergeant  and  six 
privates. 

Our  first  day  was  nearly  all  spent  in  skirting  the 
gulf  and  plain  of  Ambrakia.  One  need  not  be  im- 
patient to  get  away  from  that  beautiful  region.  The 
first  object  which  drew  our  attention  was  the  ruins 
of  Nikopolis,  about  an  hour  out  from  Prevesa.  The 
city  was  founded  by  Augustus  as  a  magnificent 
trophy  of  his  victory  at  Actium,  at  the  foot  of  the 
hill  on  which  he  had  pitched  his  tent  before  the 
battle.  On  sailing  into  Prevesa  the  day  before,  we 
had  passed  over  the  very  waters  once  enlivened  by 
that  combat,  and  over  which  Antony,  forgetting  for 
once  to  be  a  soldier,  followed  the  wanton  queen  in 
flight  and  left  the  world  to  Augustus. 

35 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

The  ruins  of  Nikopolis,  spread  out  over  several 
square  miles,  look  imposing  in  the  distance ;  but, 
like  most  Roman  ruins  near  at  hand,  vulgar  in 
comparison  with  Greek.  The  theatre  is  massive, 
and  the  aqueduct  inspires  respect  for  the  practical 
sense  of  the  conquerors  of  the  world.  The  thought 
that  St.  Paul  spent  a  winter  here  gives  a  peculiar 
interest  to  the  ruins. 

By  pressing  your  way  up  through  a  part  of  the 
square  miles  of  breast-high  thistles  about  the  thea- 
tre, you  may  reach  the  top  of  the  hill  from  which 
Augustus  looked  down  and  saw  his  enemy  appar- 
ently strong.  The  whole  world  for  which  he  was 
about  to  grapple  affords  few  scenes  of  greater  beauty 
than  that  which  lay  before  his  eye. 

The  road  over  which  our  carriage  proceeded  was 
a  testimonial  that  the  Turks  have  been  misrepre- 
sented by  the  traveller  who  said  : 

"It  is  a  favorite  idea  with  all  barbarous  princes 
that  the  badness  of  the  roads  adds  considerably 
to  the  natural  strength  of  their  dominions.  The 
Turks  and  Persians  are  undoubtedly  of  this  opinion; 
the  public  highways  are,  therefore,  neglected,  and 
particularly  so  toward  the  frontiers." 

The  road  was  being  made  into  a  good  one,  but 
as  long  stretches  of  it  were  covered  with  piles  of 
dirt,  and  on  a  level  three  or  four  feet  above  the 
older  parts,  getting  on  was  attended  with  difficulty. 
But  the  Turks  could  not  be  considered  devoid  of 

36 


DODONA 


energy  when  they  put  so  much  work  upon  the  road 
which  everybody  was  then  prophesying  would  in  a 
few  years  pass  into  the  hands  of  the  Greeks.  It  may 
be  that  the  "sick  man  "  thought  he  might  yet  use 
that  road  for  military  operations  which  would  trou- 
ble his  southern  neighbors.    At  any  rate  he  did  so. 

Along  the  foot  of  the  mountains  which  bound 
the  plain  of  Ambrakia  to  the  north,  out  from  under 
the  well-built  road,  copious  fountains  of  clear,  cold 
water  gush,  contributing  to  the  river  Luro,  the  an- 
cient Charadros,  which  here  overflows  its  banks  far 
and  wide  ;  and  a  most  luxuriant  tangle  of  trees  and 
vines,  standing  often  in  several  inches  of  water,  im- 
penetrable as  an  Indian  jungle,  astonishes  one 
accustomed  to  judge  the  vegetation  of  Greece  by  its 
eastern  parts. 

Our  second  day's  journey  was  up  the  gorge  of  the 
Luro  to  its  sources,  and  then  over  a  ridge  into  the 
plain  of  Joannina.  For  six  hours  we  had  one  con- 
tinuous vale  of  Tempe.  One  does  not  hear  enough 
of  this  region.  Who,  for  instance,  ever  hears  of 
Rogus,  a  ruin  which  we  passed  toward  evening  on  * 
the  first  day  ?  Yet  here  is  an  acropolis  which  one 
sees  from  a  great  distance — such  an  imposing  affair 
that  I  supposed  for  a  long  time  that  it  must  be 
Ambrakia.  There  are  remains  of  fine  old  Hellenic 
walls,  on  which  stood  Byzantine  walls  now  badly 
crumbled.  Leake  supposes  Rogus  to  be  the  an- 
cient Charadra. 

37 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

Along  with  us  went  a  large  family  of  Jews,  seek- 
ing among  the  Turks  a  safer  residence  than  the 
Ionian  Islands,  where  just  then  the  Jew  was  made 
very  uncomfortable.  As  we  halted  at  noon  of  the 
first  day  by  a  large  oak-tree,  on  the  shore  of  a  brook, 
it  was  interesting  to  see  groups,  Christian,  Jew,  and 
Turk,  taking  their  meals  at  quite  an  interval  from 
one  another,  but  all  under  the  shade  of  the  same  tree. 
As  we  came  into  Joannina,  the  Jews  were  subjected 
to  a  searching  examination,  but  we  were  not  ex- 
amined at  all.  We  heard  afterward  that  the  father 
of  this  family  was  suspected  of  bringing  a  lot  of 
letters,  thus  defrauding  the  Turkish  Government  of 
its  postage  fee. 

But  I  have  delayed  so  long  over  preliminaries 
that  I  can  hardly  be  just  to  Joannina  itself.  In  fact, 
to  be  just  to  Joannina  one  should  write  a  book,  and 
not  an  article.  As  one  approaches  the  great  plain 
and  lake  surrounded  by  snow-capped  mountains, 
one  feels  that  here,  as  now,  must  always  have  been 
the  principal  settlement  of  the  whole  region.  The 
name  Joannina  (pronounced  Yanina)  appears  in 
Byzantine  annals  as  early  as  the  ninth  century, 
when  mention  is  made  of  a  bishop  of  Joannina  about 
three  hundred  and  fifty  years  after  the  last  mention 
of  a  bishop  of  Dodona.  Though  not  standing  on  the 
same  site,  it  is  the  successor  of  Dodona.  But  its  his- 
tory is  essentially  Turkish.  Perhaps  its  greatest  dis- 
tinction is  that  it  was  the  capital  of  Ali  Pasha,  who, 

38 


DODONA 


in  the  first  twenty  years  of  the  present  century,  had 
established,  by  an  energetic  unscrupulousness  which 
reminds  one  of  Demosthenes's  picture  of  Philip  of 
Macedon,  a  sovereignty  practically  independent  of 
the  Sultan,  almost  as  large  as  the  Sultans  other  Euro- 
pean possessions.  Ali  had  a  sort  of  thirst  for  blood, 
which  appears  not  to  have  belonged  to  Philip.  The 
Greeks,  however,  seem  to  have  forgiven  him  the 
slaughter  of  their  fathers  and  mothers  in  deference  to 
his  genius,  and  to  take  a  local  pride  in  the  monster. 
Most  of  the  stories  told  about  him  are  records  of 
some  murder  or  other.  Most  of  the  compliments 
which  his  satellites  used  to  pay  him  turned  on  the  idea 
that  he  was  a  good  butcher.  A  place  in  the  lake  is 
still  pointed  out  as  the  scene  of  the  drowning  of  a 
dozen  or  so  Greek  women  whose  morals,  forsooth, 
were  not  up  to  the  high  standard  which  Ali  said  he 
was  going  to  set  up.  Some  of  them  belonged  to 
the  best  families  in  Joannina,  and  could  not  believe 
that  Ali  meant  more  than  blackmail  until  the  waters 
were  closing  over  them,  when  they  shrieked  and 
grasped  at  the  boat  so  wildly  that  the  executioners 
had  to  become  inhuman  in  order  to  carry  out  the 
commands  of  their  lord. 

But  this  Albanian  Mussulman  reckoned  ill  when 
he  threw  down  the  gauntlet  to  the  Sultan.  Retir- 
ing to  an  island  in  the  lake,  when  he  could  no  longer 
defend  his  capital,  he  was  first  stabbed  treacherously 
in  a  parley  in  which  he  thought  he  was  going  to 

39 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


make  terms  with  his  master,  and  finally  killed  by 
shots  fired  through  the  floor  from  the  room  under 
that  in  which  he  had  taken  refuge.  His  head  and 
those  of  his  sons,  who  had  not  well  supported  their 
father  in  the  struggle,  were  fastened  up  over  the 
door  of  the  Seraglio  in  Constantinople. 

One  afternoon,  after  conversing  awhile  with  the 
successor  of  Ali,  the  present  Vali  or  Governor- 
General  of  Epirus,  if  it  can  be  called  conversing  to 
take  a  cup  of  coffee  with  a  man,  and  see  him  smoke 
a  cigarette,  giving  you  meanwhile  a  few  of  his 
thoughts  through  an  interpreter,  we  went  over  to  the 
island,  and  saw  the  room  in  a  monastery  where  Ali 
was  slain.  The  floor  was  well  perforated  with  bul- 
let-holes. 

Ali  had  unwittingly  paved  the  way  for  Greek  in- 
dependence. He  had  shown  that  the  power  of  the 
Sultan  might  be  resisted  for  a  while  at  least.  Some 
of  the  leaders  of  the  Greeks,  who  made  his  camp 
their  school  of  war,  felt  that  the  evoking  of  a  grand 
national  sentiment  would  make  them  able  to  resist 
to  the  end.  When  Ali  fell  in  1822,  Greece  was  al- 
ready in  arms. 

Joannina,  in  the  days  of  Ali,  had,  if  we  may  be- 
lieve reports,  a  population  of  50,000.  It  has  now 
not  more  than  half  that  number.  The  Greeks  are 
about  three-quarters  of  the  whole  population,  the 
other  quarter  being  divided  between  Turks  and 
Jews,  with  considerable  preponderance  in  favor  of 

40 


DODONA 

the  former,  who  still  hold  all  the  offices,  and  show 
by  their  bearing  that  they  are  the  ruling  class.  One 
evening  we  visited  the  castle,  which  occupies  a 
peninsula  jutting  out  into  the  lake,  made  an  island  by 
a  moat  across  the  neck.  It  was  positively  scandalous 
the  way  those  soldiers  went  in  rags.  Even  the  non- 
commissioned officers,  with  their  torn  chevrons, 
seemed  in  harmony  with  the  walls  and  barracks,  now 
tumbling  to  decay.  But  these  awkward,  ragged 
fellows  seemed  to  have  signs  of  strength  about 
them,  and  might  give  a  good  report  of  themselves 
in  battle.  We  lingered  long  over  one  big  gun, 
which  bore  marks  of  service  at  Shipka  Pass.  We 
were  reminded  then  that  it  would  not  do  to  leave 
out  the  Turk  entirely  in  the  settlement  of  the  East- 
ern question. 

To  the  west  of  Joannina  the  population  is  largely 
Albanian.  This  class  of  Albanians  makes  you  feel 
that  there  may  be  some  truth  in  the  words  of  an 
English  traveller,  who,  in  classifying  the  Albanians, 
speaks  of  one  class  as  "  Albanians  who  never  change 
their  clothes."  The  chronology  of  some  of  these 
garments  of  more  than  a  hundred  heterogeneous 
pieces  would  be  an  interesting  study.  Rags  are 
generally  picturesque,  and  these  Albanians  contrib- 
ute somewhat  to  the  picturesqueness  of  Joannina's 
streets.  They  wear  for  the  most  part  a  white  fez, 
darkened  by  age  and  dirt,  which  distinguishes  them 
from  the  people  of  the  city,  who  wear,  almost  to 

4i 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

a  man,  the  red  fez.  On  one  or  two  occasions  when 
Mr.  Hill  started  to  take  a  photograph  in  the  streets, 
before  he  could  set  up  his  camera,  a  perfect  sea  of 
red  heads  was  formed  in  front  of  it,  and  the  very 
zeal  to  be  photographed  frustrated  the  attempt.  It 
was  almost  like  evoking  a  mob. 

But  in  Joannina,  of  all  places  in  the  world,  one 
must  not  forget  the  past,  the  great  Hellenic  past. 
This  region  was  once  called  Hellopia  and  the  in- 
habitants Selloi,  a  variation  for  Helloi,  and  from 
here  the  name  appears  to  have  been  transmitted  to 
the  whole  of  Hellas.  It  is  quite  a  testimonial  to 
the  persistency  of  the  old  Hellenic  spirit  that  trav- 
ellers all  notice  how  pure  is  the  Greek  spoken  in 
Joannina. 

Three  hours'  ride  across  a  range  of  hills  to  the 
south  lies  Dodona,  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Tomarus, 
which  at  the  time  of  our  visit  (in  May)  was  heavily 
capped  with  snow.  This  oldest  oracle  and  sanctu- 
ary of  Greece,  famous  before  Delphi  was  born,  has 
a  situation  only  a  little  less  imposing  than  Delphi. 
Until  about  twenty-five  years  ago  one  was  still  in 
doubt  in  just  what  part  of  this  region  to  look  for 
the  old  famous  sanctuary.  But  at  that  time  Cara- 
panos,  a  wealthy  Greek,  settled  that  question  with 
the  spade. 

Procuring  from  the  library,  by  the  kindness  of 
the  professor  of  French  in  the  Lyceum,  the  two 
beautiful  volumes  in  which  Carapanos  has  given 

42 


DODONA 


the  results  of  his  work,  I  took  them  with  me  to  the 
spot  where  he  found  Dodona,  and  followed  in  his 
footsteps.  This  library,  by  the  way,  contains  a 
good  many  valuable  books,  new  and  old,  but  they 
are  huddled  together  in  very  close  quarters,  as  the 
librarian  sadly  admitted,  employing  the  English 
phrase  "pell-mell."  But  worse  than  the  disorder 
wTas  the  dampness.  Carapanos's  book  of  plates  was 
mildewed  and  fallen  apart.  Rich  Greeks  probably 
think  their  benefactions  more  safely  bestowed  in 
Athens.  Otherwise  somebody  would  have  given  a 
new  library  building  to  Joannina. 

The  walls  that  Carapanos  discovered  all  have  a 
singularly  late  appearance,  and  there  is  a  striking 
lack  of  pottery  in  the  ground  ;  but  the  inscriptions 
and  dedicatory  offerings  leave  no  doubt  that  this  is 
Dodona.  The  temples  and  the  finely  built  theatre, 
one  of  the  largest  in  Greece,  doubtless  supplied  the 
place  of  older  and  ruder  buildings  of  the  time  when 
all  Hellas  came  to  hear  the  voice  of  Father  Zeus  in 
the  rustling  oak-leaves. 

At  the  southeastern  end  of  the  lake  of  Joannina 
is  a  hill  called  Kastritza,  crowned  by  fortifications 
indicating  the  existence  of  just  such  a  city  as  one 
would  look  for  to  match  this  great  plain  and  lake. 
Here  are  walls  about  three  miles  in  circuit,  and,  in  a 
considerable  part  of  their  extent,  twenty  feet  high 
and  twelve  feet  thick,  of  the  finest  polygonal  work. 
And  yet,  so  little  is  known  of  the  history  of  Epirus, 

43 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

that  even  the  name  of  this  city  cannot  be  ascer- 
tained with  certainty.  Leake  thought  it  was  Do- 
dona  itself,  placing  the  sanctuary,  however,  at  a 
little  distance,  on  the  spot  now  occupied  by  Joan- 
nina.  Kastritza  might  still  be  regarded  as  a  possible 
candidate  for  Dodona,  inasmuch  as  sanctuaries  in 
Greece  were  often  at  quite  a  remove  from  the  near- 
est town,  as  in  the  case  of  Epidauros  and  Oropos. 
But  the  fact  that  very  little  is  known  of  any  city  called 
Dodona,  as  well  as  the  fact  on  the  other  side  that 
the  sanctuary  excavated  by  Carapanos  has  a  small 
acropolis  connected  with  it,  makes  it  extremely  im- 
probable that  this  great  city,  Kastritza,  was  Dodona. 

The  picturesqueness  of  the  city  of  Joannina  is 
matched  by  its  grand  setting.  Its  lake  is  over  a 
thousand  feet  above  the  sea,  and  streams  from  the 
amphitheatre  of  the  snow-covered  mountains  keep 
flowing  into  it  without  finding  any  visible  outlet. 
The  color  upon  the  mountains  and  the  lake  at  sun- 
rise and  sunset  is  often  wonderful.  Mount  Mitzi- 
keli,  which  rises  abruptly  from  the  lake  on  its  side 
opposite  the  city,  is  a  breeder  of  thunder-storms. 
(It  must  be  remembered  that  this  was  the  abode  of 
Jupiter  Tonans  in  antiquity.)  Sometimes  at  mid- 
day, when  the  sun  is  shining  to  the  east  and  west 
of  Joannina,  a  storm-cloud  will  come  down  over 
this  mountain  from  the  higher  ones  of  the  Pindus 
range  back  of  it  and  make  straight  for  the  city. 
What  a  place  for  a  painter  !    Leake  tells  of  the  diffi- 

44 


DODONA 


eulty  he  had  in  persuading  the  Italian  painter, 
Lusieri,  to  stay  beyond  a  day  or  two  here  because 
he  thought  he  detected  symptoms  of  malaria ;  but, 
adds  Leake  : 

"  The  picturesque  beauties  of  the  place  had  such 
a  powerful  attraction  for  him  that  he  was  induced 
to  hazard  a  longer  visit,  until  his  fears  having  been 
calmed  by  my  own  experience,  and  that  of  the 
Joanninites  in  general,  he  prolonged  his  stay  for  six 
weeks.  The  longer  he  remained  the  more  he  was 
impressed  with  the  feeling  that  in  the  great  sources 
of  his  art,  the  sublime  and  beautiful,  and  in  their 
exquisite  mixture  and  contrast,  Joannina  exceeds 
every  place  he  had  seen  in  Italy  or  Greece." 

It  is  a  pity  that  the  pictures  which  Lusieri  painted 
here  were  lost  at  sea. 

The  exit  from  this  place,  where  tourists  are  never 
seen  and  where  newspapers  are  strictly  prohibit- 
ed, into  the  Greek  world  of  talk  and  bustle  was  as 
interesting  as  the  approach  to  it.  Our  road  lay 
over  the  great  pass  of  the  Pindos  into  Thessaly,  the 
pass  over  which  Julius  Caesar  led  his  army,  when 
he  was  about  to  grapple  with  Pompey.  For  the 
first  day's  ride  the  Arachthos  was  our  road.  We 
crossed  it  more  than  twenty  times,  when  it  was  a 
credit  to  our  horses  not  to  be  carried  down  the 
stream.  Of  course,  keeping  one's  feet  entirely  out 
of  the  water  was  impossible.  At  last  we  came  to 
the  end  of  that  day's  journey,  where  the  stream 

45 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

had  dwindled  to  a  harmless  looking  brook  at  the 
Wallachian  town  of  Metzovo.  These  Wallachians, 
especially  the  women,  look  entirely  different  from 
the  people  round  about.  They  talk  a  sort  of  Latin 
and  are  supposed  to  be  a  remnant  of  the  old  Roman 
colony  of  Dacia.  The  quaint  old  town,  where 
this  curious  old  people  is  wedged  in  among  other 
peoples,  is  within  two  hours  of  the  backbone  of 
Pindos,  over  which  we  passed  the  next  morning. 
Within  an  area  of  a  few  square  miles  here  nearly  all 
the  rivers  of  Greece  that  flow  all  the  year  round 
have  their  head  waters. 

It  was  writh  something  of  a  feeling  of  exaltation 
that  we  left  our  Turkish  guards  behind  at  the  ridge 
of  Pindos  and  soon  found  ourselves  tracing  the 
ever-widening  streamlet,  which  was  soon  to  be- 
come the  broad  Peneios,  down  into  the  land  of  the 
Greeks,  not  only  of  Greek  gods  and  heroes  of  the 
past,  but  of  the  Greek  men  of  to-day,  who  have  at 
last  here  inherited  what  their  fathers  possessed. 


46 


THE  BICYCLE  IN  GREECE 


IT  has  been  repeatedly  suggested  to  me,  by  the 
regrets  of  a  considerable  number  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  American  School  at  Athens,  that  I 
should  give  some  public  expression  to  the  utility  of 
the  bicycle  in  Greece.  I  put  aside  certain  tempta- 
tions to  praise  the  bicycle  generally,  and  speak  of  it 
only  as  a  help  here  in  the  study  of  archaeology. 

Every  year  men  come  to  us  saying :  "  I  left  my 
wheel  at  home,  thinking  it  would  be  of  little  use  in 
this  rough  country."  After  some  reflection  on  the 
difficulty  of  having  it  sent  over  after  them,  they 
rent  wheels  a  few  times,  after  which,  deterred 
partly  by  the  awkwardness  of  having  to  hunt  up  a 
wheel  for  every  little  excursion,  and  partly  by  suf- 
fering from  the  poorer  quality  of  wheels  that  are 
to  be  had  on  loan,  they  drop  the  habit  of  bicycling. 
But  the  wheel  has  been  so  keenly  appreciated  here 
by  generations  of  students  that  this  dropping  out  is 
to  be  very  much  deprecated.  Archaeology  does  not 
consist  entirely  in  the  study  of  books  and  museums. 
That  it  does  largely  so  consist  it  must  be  confessed; 
but  a  legitimate  and  important  part  of  Greek  archae- 
ology is  the  knowledge  of  the  face  of  the  country; 
the  tracing  out  of  its  ancient  routes,  going  over  the 

47 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

passes  and  climbing  now  and  then  a  mountain  ;  the 
skirting  its  coasts ;  the  visiting  its  places  of  great  re- 
nown ;  the  studying  of  its  battle-fields ;  and  the  see- 
ing of  the  landscapes  on  which  rested  the  eyes  of 
Pericles  and  Epaminondas,  of  Sophocles  and  Pin- 
dar. Especially  important  is  this  for  one  who  has 
but  one  year  to  spend  in  Greece.  It  is  well  for  him, 
even  at  the  expense  of  some  time  which  might  well 
be  spent  in  the  museum  or  in  the  library,  so  to  fill 
his  mind  with  the  landscapes  of  Greece  that,  when 
he  goes  back  and  stands  before  his  classes  and 
speaks,  for  example,  of  Leuctra,  he  may  be  looking 
with  the  mind's  eye  upon  the  slopes  down  which 
the  Spartans  came  charging,  the  opposite  slope 
where  the  Thebans  stood,  and  the  valley  between, 
where  they  clashed.  The  class  is  then  sure  to  catch 
some  of  this  vivid  presentation,  and  feel  that  they 
have  almost  seen  Leuctra  themselves.  If,  then,  one 
should  spend  the  whole  of  his  year  in  museums  and 
libraries,  we  might  say  to  him,  "This  ought  ye  to 
have  done,  and  not  to  have  left  the  other  undone." 

Granted  that  one  wishes  to  see  the  country  and 
to  become  familiar  with  it,  so  that  he  will  read 
Greek  history,  and  Greek  poetry,  too,  with  other 
eyes,  the  bicycle  becomes  evidently  indispensable. 
To  take  an  example  :  One  morning,  to  shake  off 
a  headache  incurred  by  sitting  too  long  in  a  close 
room  at  an  invaluable  meeting  of  the  German 
School  the  night  before,  I  bicycled  with  a  member 

48 


THE  BICYCLE  IN  GREECE 


of  our  school,  who  had  never  been  there  before,  to 
Liopesi  (Paeania),  the  birthplace  of  Demosthenes, 
stayed  long  enough  to  chat  with  the  villagers  and 
take  a  glass  of  their  resined  wine,  with  which  one  is 
supposed  to  drink  in  the  gift  of  talking  modern 
Greek,  and  came  back  to  Athens,  all  in  three  hours, 
taking  it  very  leisurely  at  that,  and  returning  by  a 
roundabout  way,  reached  home  full  of  oxygen  and 
sans  headache.  We  might  have  walked,  to  be  sure, 
but  not  to  Paeania,  unless  we  had  given  the  whole 
day  to  it. 

Railroads  will  take  you  already  to  many  parts  of 
Greece,  and  one  can  now  proceed  by  rail  from  the 
northern  border  of  Thessaly  to  Kalamata  at  the 
southern  end  of  Messenia.  But  even  railroads  can- 
not do  all  for  us  that  the  bicycle  does.  Exercise, 
open  air,  and,  perhaps  more  than  all,  the  delight  in 
propelling  one's  self,  will  make  one  prefer  the 
wheel.  We  can  reach  Eleusis  by  bicycle  as  quickly 
as  the  train  takes  us,  and  choose  our  own  time  for 
starting,  without  the  alternative  of  sitting  some  time 
at  the  station  or  losing  the  train. 

There  are  many  other  charming  spots  in  Attica 
where  no  railroad  comes  in  to  help.  Marathon  and 
Salamis  are  two  such  places,  to  which  we  make  ex- 
cursions every  year.  One  afternoon  in  May  two  of 
us  started  out  from  Athens  at  half-past  two,  pro- 
ceeding aimlessly  eastward  against  a  rather  pro- 
nounced wind.    Suddenly  the  thought  struck  us 

49 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


that  Marathon  lay  in  front  of  us.  A  definite  goal 
is  always  inspiring,  and  we  struck  a  good  gait  for 
Marathon.  We  reached  it  before  five  o'clock,  and 
after  passing  ten  minutes  on  the  top  of  the  historic 
mound  came  back  to  Athens  for  dinner  at  quarter 
before  eight.  Last  year  some  of  us  rode  out  on 
Thanksgiving  Day  through  Dekeleia  to  a  point 
where  we  saw  Oropos  and  the  Euboean  Gulf  at  our 
feet,  and  Dirphys,  the  highest  mountain  in  Euboea, 
rising  opposite  us,  and  then  turned  around  with  the 
recollection  of  one  of  the  finest  views  in  the  world 
to  add  to  enjoyment  of  our  Thanksgiving  dinner. 
In  twenty  minutes,  had  we  so  wished,  we  could 
have  been  in  Oropos.  On  any  day,  one  can  start 
out  from  Athens  and  reach  the  end  of  Attica  in  any 
direction,  and  get  home  to  an  early  dinner.  In  fact, 
we  have  sometimes  taken  dinner  at  home  after  stray- 
ing as  far  as  Megara  and  Thebes.  The  acquaint- 
ance which  some  members  of  our  school  have 
gained  with  Attica,  in  all  its  nooks  and  corners,  by 
single  day's  bicycle-riding,  is  something  notewor- 
thy; and  when,  in  1897,  on  Thanksgiving  Day,  we 
turned  out  ten  men  for  a  ride  across  Salamis  to 
Megara  for  a  luncheon,  and  came  home  by  the  shore 
road,  we  felt  considerable  esprit  de  corps. 

The  notion  of  foreigners  that  the  roads  of  Greece 
are  bad  compared  with  those  of  other  countries  is 
an  error.  A  bicycle  journey  through  Italy  and 
Sicily  disabused  me  of  that  notion.     The  worst 

50 


THE  BICYCLE  IN  GREECE 

road  that  I  ever  tried  was  that  between  Caserta  and 
Naples,  and  the  next  worse  was  that  leading  into 
Rome  from  the  north.  There  are,  of  course,  some 
bad  roads  in  Greece  ;  but  even  Sicily,  to  say  noth- 
ing of  worse  roads  in  Italy,  cured  me  of  complain- 
ing against  Greece.  For  a  pure  pleasure  ride,  the 
road  between  Tripolitza  and  Sparta  would  be  hard 
to  match  anywhere  in  the  world.  It  is  in  capital 
condition,  and,  on  account  of  its  gentle  grade,  in- 
volves very  little  walking.  Six  hours  suffice  for  the 
journey  in  either  direction,  and  the  view  either  way 
is  superb.  The  ride  through  iEtolia  and  Acarnania, 
regions  considered  half  civilized  in  the  classical 
period  of  Greek  history,  but  always  fine  in  natural 
beauty,  with  big  lakes,  and  rivers  that  "move  in 
majesty  "  (a  rare  thing  in  Greece),  and  hedged  in  by 
high  mountains,  is  perhaps  the  best  in  Greece. 
One  rides  from  the  shore  of  the  Corinthian  Gulf 
opposite  Patras  to  Arta  (Ambrakia)  in  two  days, 
with  a  comfortable  night  at  Agrinion,  passing  the 
historic  Messolonghi  and  visiting  the  ruins  of  Cal- 
ydon,  Pleuron,  CEniadae,  Stratos,  Limnaea,  and 
Amphilochian  Argos,  while  to  the  right  and  left  are 
other  ruins  which  invite  one  to  make  detours  if  one 
is  not  in  a  hurry.  And  one  ought  not  to  omit  the 
recently  excavated  Thermon,  the  ancient  capital  of 
^Etolia,  even  if  it  does  cost  an  extra  day.  The 
long-known  and  impressive  ruins  of  CEniadae,  the 
chief  city  in  Acarnania,  also  invite  one  to  linger  a 

5i 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


whole  day  instead  of  spending  a  few  hours  in  pass- 
ing. 

The  first  five  cities  of  ancient  Greece  in  renown 
and  interest  were  Athens,  Sparta,  Argos,  Thebes, 
and  Corinth.  One  can  ride  from  Athens  to  Thebes 
or  Corinth  and  back  in  a  single  day ;  he  can  also 
reach  Argos  from  Athens  in  a  day,  leaving  a  rather 
long  day's  work  for  reaching  Sparta.  Any  good 
bicyclist  would  find  it  no  great  matter  to  leave 
Thebes  and  pay  his  respects  to  Athens  on  the  first 
day,  visit  Corinth  and  Argos  on  the  next  day,  and 
sleep  comfortably  at  Sparta  the  next  night. 

One  day  in  February  the  clouds  dissipated  them- 
selves in  such  a  way  as  to  make  me  believe  that  we 
were  about  to  have  a  few  days  of  that  winter 
weather  which  is  "  rarer  than  a  day  in  June,"  and 
so,  taking  a  train  to  Eleusis,  to  spare  myself  a  little 
at  the  start,  I  rode  over  the  famous  Treis  Kephalai 
Pass  into  Boeotia.  I  thought  when  I  was  at  the  top 
of  the  pass  that  the  view  presented  was  the  finest 
in  Greece.  Not  to  mention  lesser  glories,  Parnassus 
was  close  at  hand  on  the  left,  Dirphys  almost 
equally  close  on  the  right,  while  very  distant,  but 
very  clear,  directly  in  front,  was  "  snowy  Olympus," 
a  perfect  mass  of  white.  After  lunching  at  Thebes, 
I  wheeled  easily  along  to  Lebadea,  entering  it  as 
the  setting  sun  was  turning  the  white  mountains 
into  pink.  The  next  day,  more  clear  and  beautiful 
than  the  first,  if  that  were  possible,  brought  me  to 

52 


THE  BICYCLE  IN  GREECE 


Lamia  in  Thessaly,  via  Chaeronea,  Doris,  and 
Thermopylae.  The  third  day,  in  order  to  get  a 
nearer  view  of  Olympus,  I  rode  and  climbed  up  to 
the  top  of  the  ridge  which  formed  the  old  border 
between  Greece  and  Turkey,  before  Thessaly  was 
incorporated  into  the  kingdom  of  Greece,  and  on 
which,  in  the  late  war,  the  Greeks  made  their  last 
stand  after  the  battle  of  Domoko.  From  this  point 
Olympus  is,  indeed,  grander  than  from  the  passes 
of  Cithaeron,  while  the  whole  Pindos  range,  and  the 
grand  isolated  peak  of  Tymphrestos,  which  some 
think  would  prove,  if  properly  measured,  to  be 
the  highest  peak  in  Greece,  stand  up  in  majesty. 
Parnassus  and  the  ^Etolian  Mountains  make  a  fine 
showing  on  the  south.  From  this  point,  on  this 
same  third  day,  as  clear  as  the  two  preceding,  I 
reached  Amphissa  at  evening,  after  climbing  two 
passes  and  enjoying  new  glories  at  each.  It  was,  in 
fact,  a  continuous  intoxication,  to  recover  from 
which  it  required  two  days  of  archaeological  study 
at  Delphi.  This  was,  to  be  sure,  almost  equally 
intoxicating,  but,  being  an  intoxication  of  another 
sort,  it  let  me  down  gently.  In  three  days  I  had 
got  a  glimpse  of  nearly  all  Greece  in  such  weather 
as  only  a  Greek  winter  can  give. 


53 


ACARNANIA 

IN  many  respects  the  most  interesting  journey 
which  I  have  made  in  Greece  was  my  last  one 
through  Acarnania  and  iEtolia.  To  be  sure,  my 
last  journey  in  Greece  is  always  my  best  one ;  yet 
there  was  a  special  attraction  in  this  journey  from 
the  fact  that  it  was  the  fulfilment  of  a  long-cherished 
desire.  There  was  a  gap  in  my  knowledge  of  west- 
ern Greece  which  I  keenly  felt.  I  had  tramped  over 
the  Ionian  Islands,  visited  Joannina  and  Dodona, 
and  passed  over  the  Pindos  range  into  Thessaly.  In 
passing  Prevesa  and  Nikopolis  the  sight  of  the  Am- 
brakian  Gulf  had  filled  me  with  a  desire  to  explore 
its  innermost  recesses.  The  grand  mountains  of 
Acarnania  to  the  south  challenged  especially  to  a 
nearer  view.  Three  years  later,  coming  up  from 
Patras  by  the  Northwestern  Railroad  of  Greece  to 
Agrinion,  the  capital  of  iEtolia,  I  had  visited  in  bad 
weather  CEniadae,  the  most  important  city  of  Acar- 
nania, mused  over  the  ^Etolian  acropolis  of  Calydon, 
famous  in  song  and  story,  and  gone  as  far  north  as 
Stratos,  Acarnania  s  capital ;  but  although  in  look- 
ing out  from  Stratos  it  seems  as  if  all  the  glory  was 
farther  north,  my  travelling  companion  was  obliged 
to  retreat,  and  I  followed  his  fortunes.    All  this  had 

54 


ACARNANIA 


but  whetted  my  appetite  ;  and,  three  years  later,  at 
the  end  of  February  in  that  most  marvellous  of 
winters,  which  gave  us  six  consecutive  weeks  of  April 
temperature  with  unclouded  sky,  I  set  out  from  Pi- 
raeus one  moonlight  night  to  satisfy  my  desire,  with 
a  companion  who  was  not  in  a  hurry. 

Our  first  goal  was  Arta,  the  terminus  of  a  line  of 
steamers  from  Piraeus.  No  mean  part  of  the  journey 
on  a  clear  winter  day  is  the  view  of  the  three  masses 
of  snow-covered  mountains  to  the  north  of  the  Co- 
rinthian Gulf,  each  over  eight  thousand  feet  high, 
and  the  three  to  the  south,  falling  just  short  of  the 
same  height,  to  say  nothing  of  many  others  which 
would  be  impressive  if  the  giants  were  absent.  The 
effect  is  not  unlike  that  of  Lake  Lucerne  somewhat 
broadened  out.  A  stop  at  Samos,  in  Kephallenia, 
cn  the  morning  of  the  second  day,  and  a  sail  between 
Kephallenia  and  Ithaca,  during  which  the  latter  may 
be  studied  at  short  range,  is  no  slight  advantage 
"  thrown  in."  At  Leukas,  in  the  afternoon,  came  a 
stirring  scene.  About  a  hundred  recruits  were  tak- 
en on  board.  Greece  had  had  troops  in  Crete  for 
a  week,  and  so,  although  war  had  not  actually  been 
declared,  she  was  gathering  troops  to  protect  her 
border  or  to  advance  into  Epirus,  as  circumstances 
might  dictate.  Two  hours  later,  in  sailing  through 
the  waters  where  the  battle  of  Actium  took  place, 
we  passed  under  the  guns  of  the  Turkish  forts  at 
Prevesa.    As  the  Greek  color-bearer  was  inclined 

55 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

to  flaunt  his  flag  a  good  deal,  it  seemed  something 
like  an  adventure.  But  the  Margarita  escaped  the 
fate  that  a  few  weeks  later  overtook  the  Mace- 
donia, which  was  sunk  by  the  Turkish  fire,  while 
the  passengers  had  to  swim  for  their  lives.  At  Vo- 
nitza  we  took  on  another  hundred  of  the  recruits 
pouring  into  Arta  from  all  over  western  Greece. 
The  men  were  cheerful  and  orderly,  but  brimful  of 
the  war  feeling  which  pervaded  Greece. 

Delayed  by  these  embarkations  of  troops,  we  did 
not  reach  Koprena,  the  port  of  Arta,  until  eight 
o'clock  in  the  evening.  Then  there  was  a  lack  of 
boats  to  bring  such  a  crowd  to  shore,  and  with  a 
long  drive  of  ten  or  twelve  miles  in  the  dark,  over 
a  bad  road  crowded  with  soldiers,  it  was  after  mid- 
night when  we  reached  Arta.  Our  host,  a  man 
whom  I  had  never  seen,  but  to  whom  I  was  intro- 
duced by  a  friend  in  Athens,  had  been  waiting  for 
us  at  Koprena  since  noon,  and  did  not  appear  to 
think  that  he  had  done  any  more  for  us  than  any 
proper  man  would  do. 

The  next  morning,  with  a  captain  of  artillery  who 
had  been  our  fellow-passenger  from  Athens,  we 
went  out  through  orange  groves  to  the  famous 
bridge  of  Arta,  over  the  Arachthos,  which  here 
forms  the  border,  the  Greeks  having  secured,  in 
1 88 1,  Arta  and  its  adjacent  fields  up  to  the  river, 
along  with  Thessaly.  The  present  border  is  the  most 
unrighteous  one  that  could  be  devised.    A  river  is 

56 


o 
< 

F— 
c/i 

< 

-J 


ACARNANIA 


generally  no  proper  boundary-line,  but  in  this  case 
especially  it  is  intolerable.  The  plain  across  the  river 
belongs  by  nature  to  the  city,  and,  in  fact,  is  owned 
largely  by  the  people  of  Arta,  who  have  suffered 
manifold  inconveniences  in  the  management  of  their 
property.  Who  can  wonder  that  the  Greeks  were 
anxious  for  an  offensive  campaign  here  which  should 
give  them  back  their  own  ? 

The  finest  feature  of  Arta  is  its  view.  From  the 
hill,  at  the  foot  of  which  lies  the  city,  one  sees  the 
mountains  near  Dodona,  and  farther  south  and  quite 
close  at  hand,  is  Tsoumerka,  in  the  spring  a  mass 
of  snow,  falling  just  short  of  eight  thousand  feet. 
Behind  this,  over  beyond  the  Acheloos,  the  snowy 
peaks  of  the  Pindos  range  crowd  one  upon  another 
in  such  thick  array  that  one  despairs  of  identifying 
them  all  with  the  names  given  on  the  map.  To  the 
south  lie  the  three  mountains  of  Acarnania  in  eche- 
lon, impressive  although  only  a  little  over  five  thou- 
sand feet  high,  and  the  glorious  gulf  itself. 

Arta  has  also  a  history.  One  hurries  by  the  in- 
teresting Church  of  the  Consoling  Virgin,  a  brick 
structure  of  the  tenth  century,  perhaps,  and  a  medi- 
aeval castle,  to  the  days  when  Arta  was  Ambrakia. 
Even  the  days  when  it  was  the  capital  of  the  famous 
Pyrrhus  seem  recent,  compared  with  the  really  great 
days  when  it  was  a  democratic  city  of  free  Hellas 
long  before  the  Persian  war.  Cropping  out  from 
under  the  shabby  houses  of  the  town  are  walls  made 

57 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


of  massive  blocks  which  speak  of  days  of  greatness. 
This  blooming  colony  of  Corinth,  foreordained  by 
its  situation  to  be  the  principal  city  of  the  region, 
gave  its  name  in  antiquity,  as  now,  to  the  great  gulf 
which  it  overlooks. 

Corinth  had  the  misfortune,  rare  in  Greek  history, 
to  plant  one  unfilial  colony,  Corcyra,  which,  as 
early  as  665  B.C.,  worsted  the  mother  in  a  great 
naval  battle,  and,  from  a  daughter,  became  a  lasting 
enemy.  To  recover  her  influence  in  these  regions, 
Corinth,  in  the  days  of  Kypselos  and  Periander, 
which  seem  pretty  old  days,  planted  Ambrakia  be- 
sides Anaktorion,  just  inside  the  entrance  of  the 
gulf,  and  Leukas  just  outside.  As  if  to  prove  that 
Corinth  was  not  an  especially  hard  mother,  these 
colonies  always  remained  filial,  and  their  contin- 
gents were  always  drawn  up  in  the  Persian  war 
alongside  those  of  Corinth.  Ambrakia,  besides 
dominating  the  rich  plain  which  by  nature  belongs 
to  her,  but  by  the  will  of  Europe  now  belongs  to 
Turkey,  had  also  an  especial  significance  as  standing 
on  the  road  to  Dodona  for  nearly  all  of  Greece. 

But  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  rewrite  any  portion 
of  the  history  of  Greece,  but  only  to  set  forth 
clearly  the  physical  and  moral  position  of  Ambra- 
kia, that  one  may  realize  more  clearly  the  satisfac- 
tion of  the  sturdy  Demosthenes,  the  man  of  deeds, 
not  the  man  of  words,  when,  at  Olpae  and  under 
the  walls  of  Amphilochian  Argos,  a  few  miles 

58 


ACARNANIA 


to  the  south,  he  crippled  Ambrakia  as  thoroughly 
as  Cleomenes  had  crippled  Argos  at  Tiryns  a  few 
years  before  the  Persian  war,  and  made  Corinth 
feel  in  the  woes  of  her  favorite  daughter  that  she 
had  not  kindled  the  flames  of  the  Peloponnesian 
war  with  impunity.  Since  certain  Messenians  took 
part  in  this  battle,  it  has  been  supposed  by  some 
that  the  famous  Nike  of  Paeonios  at  Olympia  was 
set  up  to  commemorate  their  share  of  the  victory. 

We  proceeded  southward  from  Arta  by  a  very 
good  carriage-road  skirting  the  west  end  of  the  gulf. 
About  one-third  of  our  day's  journey  was  taken  up 
in  traversing  the  famous  Makrynoros  Pass,  where 
the  mountains,  as  high  as  Hymettus,  come  down 
almost  perpendicularly  to  the  sea  for  a  space  of 
about  ten  miles.  This  is  called  the  Thermopylae  of 
western  Greece  ;  but  it  is  a  much  more  difficult  pass 
to  force  than  Thermopylae,  where  two  foot-hills  come 
down  to  the  sea  with  a  more  gentle  slope.  Ther- 
mopylae, too,  in  modern  times  has  lost  its  original 
character  by  the  formation  of  quite  a  plain  at  the 
foot  of  its  mountains  by  the  alluvial  deposit  of  the 
Spercheios  and  the  incrustation  formed  by  sulphur 
springs ;  while  Makrynoros  remains  a  mountain 
running  straight  down  into  the  sea,  necessitating 
the  making  of  the  modern  carriage-road  with  great 
difficulty  and  expense.  But  as  this  road  is  a  thou- 
sand feet  above  the  water,  it  affords  a  fine  view  over 
the  gulf  and  its  setting.    The  railroad  which  con- 

59 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


nects  Patras  with  Agrinion  must  come  some  day  to 
Arta,  so  all  the  people  of  the  region  were  saying. 
The  Makrynoros  Pass  would  be  the  chief  difficulty 
in  the  way ;  but  the  railroad  could  keep  the  same 
height  all  the  way,  and  no  steep  grades  would  be 
required.  The  main  difficulty  would  be  the  crossing 
of  the  many  gullies  which  run  down  from  the  side 
of  the  mountain.  In  the  ordinary  march  of  events, 
Arta  will  be  included  in  the  slowly  extending  net- 
work, although  the  claims  of  Sparta  may  have  to  be 
attended  to  first.  It  depends  somewhat  upon  the 
relative  influence  and  push  of  the  delegates  of  the 
sections  concerned. 

This  pass  has  a  strategic  importance,  and  we  may 
soon  hear  of  it  again  in  connection  with  military 
operations.  The  Ambrakian  Gulf  and  Maliac  Gulf, 
by  Thermopylae,  reach  out  toward  each  other,  mak- 
ing what  is  sometimes  called  an  isthmus,  an  echo 
of  the  Isthmus  of  Corinth  ;  but  if  anyone  tries  to 
make  his  way  across  this  he  will  realize  that  it  is 
only  an  isthmus  by  courtesy,  and  will  have  vividly 
impressed  upon  his  mind  that  "the  longest  way 
around  is  the  shortest  way  home."  The  pass  of 
Thermopylae  may  be  circumvented ;  but  so  piled  up 
are  the  mountains  to  the  west  of  Makrynoros  that, 
in  order  to  circumvent  it,  one  might  as  well  go  to 
Thermopylae  itself. 

In  the  Greek  war  of  independence,  the  first  se- 
vere defeat  of  the  Greeks  took  place  in  the  second 

60 


ACARNANIA 


year  of  the  war,  near  the  northern  end  of  Makry- 
noros.  Maurocordatos,  the  President  of  the  new 
State,  wishing  to  be  a  Washington  and  to  be  general 
as  well  as  statesman,  took  command  of  the  regular 
army,  and  pushed  northward  through  the  pass,  as  if 
to  take  the  offensive  against  the  Turks  at  Arta,  and 
then,  as  if  not  quite  certain  what  he  wanted  to  do, 
waited  for  the  Turks  to  attack  him,  which  they  did 
in  good  time,  annihilating  his  army  at  Peta.  His 
head-quarters  were  farther  back  at  the  opening  of 
the  pass.  Had  he  decided  to  take  the  defensive 
soon  enough  he  might  have  immortalized  Makryno- 
ros  and  saved  his  army,  instead  of  simply  saving 
himself  and  his  staff.  At  Peta,  which  lay  on  the 
hill  to  the  left  of  our  road  from  Arta  to  the  mouth 
of  the  pass,  is  a  tablet  on  which  are  inscribed  the 
names  of  the  members  of  the  regiment  of  Philhel- 
lenes  who,  to  give  the  Greeks  an  example,  stood 
their  ground  until  they  were  all  shot  down,  except 
twenty-five,  who  succeeded  in  cutting  their  way 
through  the  enemy. 

In  the  battle  fought  near  the  south  end  of  the 
pass  in  which  Demosthenes  crushed  the  Ambraki- 
ans,  the  pass  played  no  role  at  all.  Here  our  road 
passed  between  Olpae  and  Amphilochian  Argos, 
and  half  an  hour  was  well  spent  in  making  a  part 
of  the  circuit  of  the  walls  of  the  latter,  which  are 
fairly  well  preserved.  A  sure  token  that  Amphi- 
lochian Argos  lay  here,  and  not  at  Karvasara,  as 

61 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

was  once  supposed,  is  the  name  of  the  plain  be- 
tween the  old  walls  and  the  sea.  This  still  bears 
the  name  "Vlichia,"  which  is  all  that  is  left  of 
"  Amphilochia " ;  but  it  is  enough  to  prove  the 
identity. 

At  evening  we  came  to  Karvasara,  at  the  foot  of 
one  of  the  most  imposing  acropolises  in  Greece. 
Here  we  were  in  Acarnania,  where,  as  in  iEtolia,  it 
is  more  difficult  to  find  names  for  imposing  remains 
than  to  find  remains  for  important  names.  But  it 
is  quite  likely  that  the  name  Limnaea  will  stick  to 
this  great  acropolis,  inasmuch  as  Limnaea  lay  on 
the  sea,  and  its  name  is  justified  by  the  presence  of 
something  half  lake  and  half  marsh  that  almost  laps 
its  walls  on  the  south,  or  landward,  side,  although 
certain  distances  given  in  Polybius  do  not  quite  tally 
with  this  identification.  From  this  elevation  we 
could  look  to  the  south  farther  than  Stratos,  which 
was  hidden  by  a  bend  of  the  long  mountain  at  the 
south  end  of  which  it  lay.  I  had  in  a  certain  sense 
joined  hands  with  my  former  journey,  although  the 
best  of  the  present  journey,  which  was  cumulative 
in  its  enjoyment,  was  still  to  come. 

Among  many  walled  cities  of  Acarnania  the 
three  most  important  are  Limnaea,  Stratos,  and 
(Eniadae.  Limnaea,  which  plays  a  comparatively 
insignificant  role  in  history,  has  the  most  command- 
ing position,  on  a  high  hill  overlooking  the  east 
end  of  the  Ambrakian  Gulf.    The  walls  are  well 

62 


ACARNANIA 


preserved,  and,  for  their  height  as  well  as  extent,  ex- 
cite admiration.  Stratos,  situated  on  the  west  bank 
of  the  Acheloos,  is  not  quite  so  high,  but  its  walls 
are  fully  as  extensive  and  high.  It  has  also  well- 
preserved  foundations  of  a  temple  of  white  lime- 
stone. It  confronted  Agrinion,  the  capital  city  of 
the  iEtolians,  the  eternal  enemies  of  the  Acarnani- 
ans ;  and  these  two  grim  fortress  capitals  frowned  at 
each  other  for  ages  with  nothing  but  the  rolling 
river  between  them. 

But  OEniadae  is,  after  all,  the  most  impressive  of 
all  the  Acarnanian  ruins.  It  crowns  an  irregular 
hill  which  was  once  an  island,  but  has  become  a 
part  of  the  mainland  by  the  action  of  the  Acheloos. 
Down  to  the  fourth  century  before  Christ,  and  per- 
haps even  later,  the  sea  touched  its  western  side,  for 
here  are  clear  traces  of  a  harbor,  as  well  as  some 
fairly  preserved  ship-sheds.  The  walls  are  not  only 
of  great  extent,  but  wonderfully  well  preserved,  with 
gates  of  most  varied  forms,  in  which  the  arch  is 
seen  in  various  stages  of  formation.  The  whole 
vast  enclosure  is  covered  with  a  grove  of  great 
oaks,  which,  in  some  cases,  have  pushed  down  the 
walls.  In  one  case,  the  growing  oak  has  pulled  out 
one  stone  from  its  place  and  carried  it  up  in  its  em- 
brace several  feet  above  the  rest  of  the  wall.  So 
luxuriant  is  the  vegetation  all  over  the  hill  that  one 
who  will  see  the  whole  wall  outside  and  inside — and 
no  less  will  satisfy  one — must  give  up  a  whole  day 

63 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

to  the  task,  and  force  his  way  through  thorns  and 
briers  that  scratch  and  tear,  paying  with  his  person. 

The  result  of  four  or  five  visits  to  OEniadae  was 
finally  a  plan  to  make  excavations  there,  and,  in 
1 90 1,  several  members  of  the  American  School  un- 
dertook the  work.  With  a  comparatively  small 
outlay  of  money,  but  with  great  hardship,  they  laid 
bare  a  theatre,  mostly  rock-cut,  with  many  inscrip- 
tions, the  ship-sheds,  and  near  by  them  a  bath. 
The  theatre  is  most  picturesque.  Anyone  who  fails 
to  visit  CEniadae  makes  a  mistake. 


64 


jETOLIA 


ON  my  first  visit  to  ^Etolia  and  Acarnania  I 
went  in  at  the  front  door,  i.e.,  by  the  North- 
western Railroad  from  Patras,  past  Calydon,  re- 
nowned in  legend,  and  Messolonghi,  of  deathless 
fame,  to  Agrinion,  the  terminus  of  the  railroad,  and 
thence  northward.  On  the  second  visit  I  went  in 
at  the  back  door  by  steamer  to  Arta,  and  journeyed 
southward.  On  a  third  visit  I  jumped  in,  as  it 
were,  at  the  window. 

Having  returned  from  a  flying  visit  to  Olympia, 
I  and  my  companion  met  at  Patras  two  other  mem- 
bers of  the  American  School,  with  whom  we  in- 
tended to  bicycle  as  far  north  as  Arta,  diverging  to 
the  right  and  left  to  visit  a  half-dozen  ancient  sites 
of  the  region.  But  twenty-four  hours  of  heavy 
rain  made  us  feel  that  the  Messolonghi  route  would 
be  nothing  but  a  bed  of  mud ;  and  we  let  the 
morning  boat  of  the  Northwestern  Railroad  cross 
over  in  the  rain  without  us.  When  at  eleven 
o'clock  it  was  clear,  I  proposed  that  we  should  take 
a  sail-boat  over  to  Naupaktos,  and  push  our  way  up 
into  iEtolia  from  that  point.  Since  a  good  part 
of  the  way  would  be  uphill,  the  water  would  have 
run  off  and  the  road  would  be  passable,    I  should 

65 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

at  least  get  something  new  out  of  the  journey,  and 
realize  how  short  was  the  distance  which  separated 
the  Lake  of  Agrinion  (Trichonis)  from  the  Corin- 
thian Gulf.  We  could  see  by  the  map  that  this 
was  not  more  than  twelve  miles  as  the  crow  flies, 
and  I  pictured  to  myself  some  water-shed  from  which 
we  should  see  both  the  sea  and  the  lake. 

We  sailed  to  the  point  called  now  Kastro  Rou- 
melias,  the  ancient  Antirrhion,  and  mounted  our 
wheels  at  half-past  one.  Three-quarters  of  an  hour 
brought  us  to  Naupaktos.  This  city  was  flourishing 
in  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries  before  Christ ; 
but  its  plain  was  not  large  enough,  and  the  places 
in  the  interior  to  which  it  was  a  key  were  not  im- 
portant enough  to  give  it  permanent  prosperity. 
In  the  fifth  century  it  was  taken  by  the  Athenians, 
and  given  to  the  exiled  Messenians,  who  made  it  a 
stanch  ally  of  Athens  in  the  sphere  of  Corinthian 
influence.  Besides  being  most  picturesquely  situ- 
ated, it  has  looked  down  on  important  events. 
Under  its  walls  and  in  its  harbor  Phormio,  the 
Athenian  admiral,  twice  annihilated  a  Peloponnesian 
fleet  of  more  than  double  the  size  of  his  own.  The 
greatest  naval  battle  that  ever  took  place  between 
Christendom  and  Islam,  though  fought  in  the  open 
sea  twenty  miles  to  the  west,  was  named  after  it, 
because  the  Turkish  armada  set  out  from  it  to  meet 
Don  John  of  Austria.  One  hardly  recognizes  the 
name  in  the  Venetian  form,  Lepanto.    The  Greek 

66 


^ETOLIA 


name  of  to-day,  Epaktos,  is  nearer  to  the  ancient 
form. 

We  stopped  only  a  few  minutes  here,  as  our  in- 
tention was  to  reach  Kephalovrysi  (Thermon)  that 
night,  and,  if  we  failed  in  that,  it  seemed  child's- 
play  to  reach  at  least  Makrinou  on  the  lake.  Even 
when  bicycling  ceased  and  we  settled  down  to 
steady  climbing,  we  felt  no  misgivings  ;  and  when 
at  four  o'clock  we  began  to  descend  we  thought 
our  work  for  the  day  about  finished.  But  our  con- 
fidence was  rudely  shaken  when  we  saw  before  us 
the  broad,  pebbly  bed  of  the  Evenos,  which  flows 
down  through  these  mountains,  taking  a  sharp  turn 
to  the  west  and  passing  under  the  walls  of  Calydon. 
We  had  forgotten  to  reckon  with  this.  We  now 
paid  dearly  for  our  descent  by  another  climb,  which 
seemed  unending,  and  before  we  reached  our  great- 
est altitude  far  from  Kephalovrysi,  and,  for  aught 
we  knew,  far  from  Makrinou  also,  it  became  dark. 

This  road  seems  an  excellent  example  of  the  way 
in  which  the  little  kingdom  of  Greece  ought  not  to 
make  internal  improvements.  The  fine  carriage- 
road,  built  at  great  expense,  winds  with  gentlest 
grade  along  every  projection  and  indentation  of  the 
mountains  ;  and  yet  we  met  on  our  whole  journey 
to  the  top  only  a  single  cart,  and  in  many  places 
the  road  was  so  overgrown  with  grass  that  no  ruts 
appeared.  When  it  was  growing  dark  we  saw  an- 
other reason  why  the  road  might  not  be  popular. 

67 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

In  some  places  it  had  slipped  downhill  ;  and  in 
other  places  the  hills  had  slipped  down  into  it, 
which  was  almost  as  bad.  There  is  no  call  for  a 
fine  highway  from  Naupaktos  to  the  lake.  The 
great  interior  basin  of  ^Etolia  is  provided  with  a 
good  course  for  its  traffic  via  Messolonghi ;  and  no 
power  on  earth  can  force  it  to  come  this  way.  It 
is  useless  for  some  silly  people  in  Naupaktos  to 
complain  that  favoritism  was  shown  in  not  laying 
out  the  Northwestern  Railroad  with  their  town  as  a 
starting-point.  For  a  town  doomed  to  decline,  a 
steamer  stopping  two  or  three  times  a  week,  sup- 
plemented by  sail-boats  to  and  from  the  more  lively 
and  more  important  southern  shore  of  the  Corin- 
thian Gulf,  may  well  suffice.  The  Northwestern 
Railroad  will  soon  be  prolonged  to  Arta,  giving  to 
him  that  hath,  according  to  the  habit  of  railroads  ; 
and  even  this  finely  built  carriage-road  will  continue 
to  be  avoided  by  every  self-respecting  traveller,  as  it 
is  now,  until  only  pieces  of  this  monumental  folly 
shall  remain.  The  demarch  of  Kephalovrysi  told 
me  that  the  primary  object  of  this  road  was  to  en- 
able the  Government  to  move  troops  by  land  in 
case  of  the  blockade  of  the  coast  by  stronger  Pow- 
ers. But  even  with  that  explanation  the  road  seems 
useless  without  good  roads  farther  east  to  connect 
with  it,  to  say  nothing  of  the  futility  of  Greece 
attempting  to  resist  the  stronger  naval  Powers. 
When  darkness  was  fairly  upon  us,  and  just  as  we 

68 


^ETOLIA 


were  beginning  to  descend,  we  found  a  wretched 
village  of  four  or  five  houses.  At  one  of  these 
with  a  wine-shop  below  and  living-rooms  above,  we 
were  well  fed,  but  in  a  rather  primitive  style,  I  eat- 
ing my  rice  from  the  same  bowl  with  the  host,  as 
we  all  sat  cross-legged  in  front  of  the  fire.  Since 
it  was  very  cold,  we  were  glad  to  lie  down  for  the 
night  on  rugs,  with  other  rugs  over  us,  with  our  feet 
to  the  fire,  making  one  end  of  a  semicircle,  at  the 
other  end  of  which  was  the  host  with  his  wife  and 
five  small  children,  while  below,  in  the  business  part 
of  the  establishment,  were  five  larger  children. 

When  we  got  off  at  sunrise  the  next  morning,  the 
view  to  the  west  was  something  over  which  one 
may  well  grow  enthusiastic.  Low  down  at  our  feet, 
but  stretching  far  away  to  the  west,  was  the  lake 
which  we  had  sought,  and  beyond  its  farther  end 
another  smaller  one.  At  that  farther  end,  too,  was 
the  fertile  plain  of  Agrinion,  where  grows  the  best 
tobacco  in  Greece.  Beyond  that  and  across  the 
Acheloos  rose  the  snowy  mountains  of  Acarnania 
and  Leukas,  just  touched  by  the  rising  sun.  On 
our  right,  rising  up  from  the  north  shore  of  the  lake 
and  stretching  far  to  the  north,  were  the  gigantic 
mountains  which  make  the  larger  and  wilder  part 
of  /Etolia.  On  our  left  were  the  lower  peaks  of 
Mount  Arakynthos  bordering  the  lake  on  the  south. 
This  is  the  heart  of  ^Etolia.  It  has  a  wonderfully 
drawing  power  to  one  who  has  once  seen  it.  The 

69 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


lake,  enclosed  by  mountains  on  its  eastern  end,  and 
on  its  western  end  by  a  plain,  is  wonderfully  beau- 
tiful. It  is  striking  that  its  surface  is  hardly  stirred 
by  either  row-boats  or  sail-boats.  The  only  time 
I  ever  saw  a  sail  upon  it  was  on  this  particular 
morning. 

It  was  matter  for  sad  reflection  that  this  great 
plain  did  not  all  belong  to  ^Etolia,  but  that  the  part 
beyond  the  Acheloos  was  Acarnania.  Rivers  can- 
not divide  peoples ;  and  these  two  peoples  through 
all  their  history  dyed  this  unnatural  boundary  with 
their  blood.  The  iEtolians,  as  the  stronger  if  not 
the  better  people,  generally  succeeded  in  keeping  a 
foothold  on  the  other  bank,  holding  even  Stratos, 
the  capital  of  Acarnania,  and  (Eniadae,  its  strongest 
city,  for  periods  of  centuries.  But  the  Acarnanians 
were  tough  antagonists,  and  never  said  die  till  all 
was  merged  in  the  supremacy  of  Rome. 

It  was  a  matter  of  a  few  minutes  to  spin  down 
to  Makrinou,  which  now  had  for  us  no  importance. 
Kephalovrysi  was  our  goal.  The  visit  was  for  me 
tinged  with  some  melancholy  reflections.  Less 
than  a  year  before  I  had  been  there  with  my  friend, 
Charles  Peabody,  of  Cambridge,  and  we  had  been 
much  excited  at  the  thought  that  here  lay  Thermon, 
the  head  of  the  iEtolian  League,  and  so  near  the  sur- 
face that  a  little  excavation  would  prove  it.  On  my 
return  to  Athens  I  asked  the  Ephor  General  of  An- 
tiquities to  reserve  the  spot  for  us,  which  he  said  he 

70 


^ETOLIA 

would  do.  But  a  few  months  later,  when  the  Greek 
Archaeological  Society  sent  Georgios  Soteiriades  into 
^Etolia  to  explore  sites,  this  one  was  not  excepted  ; 
and  he  attacked  it  with  great  success.  While  I  had 
to  rejoice  that  archaeology  had  gained  a  triumph,  I 
was  sorry  that  an  enthusiastic  American  had  not  been 
the  instrument.  After  a  few  miles  of  level  road 
along  the  east  end  of  the  lake,  we  toiled  four  or  five 
miles  up  along  the  face  of  the  mountain  enclosing 
it  on  the  north  side,  and  then  turning  sharply  away 
from  the  lake  at  Petrochori,  a  village  perched  on  the 
top  of  a  ridge  commanding  as  good  a  view  as  the 
one  already  described,  in  a  few  minutes  we  had 
reached  our  goal. 

Kephalovrysi  has  about  a  thousand  inhabitants. 
It  was  not  more  than  ten  minutes  after  we  had 
settled  ourselves  in  an  eating-house  when  all  the 
boys  of  the  place  and  most  of  the  men,  with  a  small 
representation  of  the  girls,  gathered  around  and 
thronged  in  at  the  door,  in  spite  of  the  kicks  and 
cuffs  of  the  proprietor.  Before  we  had  fairly  begun 
to  eat,  the  demarch  appeared  with  his  inseparable  . 
companion,  the  young  schoolmaster,  the  two  who 
had  last  year  escorted  us  to  the  ruins,  at  the  head 
of  the  whole  school,  which  had  been  given  a  half- 
holiday  in  honor  of  our  arrival.  This  time  it  was 
a  holiday  without  special  dispensation  ;  but  the  boys 
were  so  absorbed  in  our  bicycles,  which  were  the 
first  ever  seen  in  the  place,  that  we  had  the  demarch 

7i 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


and  the  schoolmaster  almost  to  ourselves  on  the 
walk  out  to  the  ruins. 

The  excavation  of  these  ruins  called  Palaeo-Bazaar 
closes  a  chapter  in  the  topographical  study  of  iEtolia, 
which  began  with  Colonel  Leake.  Pouqueville,  in- 
deed, prompted  by  the  natural  desire  to  give  names 
to  the  impressive  ruins  that  met  him  on  every 
hand,  gave  names,  as  he  himself  confessed,  "by  a 
sort  of  lucky  inspiration."  A  passage  in  Polybius 
forms  the  basis  for  the  topography  of  this  central 
region  of  ^Etolia.  It  is  the  passage  in  which  he  de- 
scribes how  Philip  V.,  the  young  King  of  Macedon, 
in  218  B.C.,  by  a  forced  march  from  the  Acheloos, 
near  Stratos,  reached  and  destroyed  Thermon  in  re- 
venge for  the  destruction  of  Dodona  in  the  pre- 
ceding year  by  the  iEtolians,  under  Dorymachos. 
In  this  narrative  he  mentions  several  towns  to  the 
right  and  left  of  the  line  of  march. 

Leake,  who  never  travelled  around  the  east  end 
of  the  lake,  made  up  his  mind  that  Thermon  must 
be  found  at  Vlocho,  the  most  impressive  ruin  and 
strongest  fortified  place  in  ^Etolia,  not  far  east  of 
Agrinion.  Starting  with  this  as  a  fact,  he  laid  out 
the  rest  of  the  topography  accordingly.  Two  great 
difficulties,  however,  confronted  Leake.  Polybius 
speaks  of  the  lake  as  covering  the  left  of  the  army 
during  a  considerable  part  of  the  march,  while 
Leake,  placing  Thermon  at  Vlocho,  cannot  keep 
them  from  leaving  it  well  to  their  right  all  the  way. 

72 


iETOLIA 


The  great  topographer,  who  had  successfully  located 
Calydon  by  transposing  two  passages  in  Strabo  and 
inserting  a  negative,  thought  it  not  venturesome  to 
"  restore  "  right  for  left  in  this  passage  of  Polybius, 
on  the  ground  that  there  are  many  occurrences  of 
such  slips  in  ancient  writers.  A  second  difficulty 
troubled  him  less.  A  march  from  the  Acheloos  to 
Thermon,  which  is  spoken  of  as  a  forced  march, 
a  record  march  if  you  will,  from  the  dawn  of  a 
summer  day  till  late  in  the  afternoon,  by  hardy 
troops,  cannot,  if  Vlocho  is  Thermon,  be  spun  out 
to  more  than  fifteen  miles,  and  that  mostly  over 
good  ground.  Leake  talks  loosely  of  arrival  at 
two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  which  hardly  does 
justice  to  the  ttoW^  &pa$  of  the  text. 

The  prestige  of  Leake,  his  almost  established  rec- 
ord of  never  going  astray,  led  topographers  generally 
to  follow  him,  at  least  in  the  location  of  Thermon. 
Bazin,  indeed,  having  a  conscience  about  changing 
left  to  right,  makes  Philip  march  clear  round  the  lake 
and  reach  Vlocho  in  season  to  destroy  that  great 
citadel  on  the  same  day,  a  distance  of  forty-five 
miles  over  some  very  bad  ground,  and  that,  too,  on 
top  of  a  forced  march  the  day  before.  A  military 
man  like  Leake  could  not  have  made  this  error, 
though  he  led  Bazin  into  it  by  falsely  locating 
Thermon. 

In  spite  of  a  growing  belief,  starting  with  Bursian 
and  at  last  finding  exact  expression  in  Lolling's 

73 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

selection  of  Palaeo- Bazaar,  that  Thermon  was  some- 
where near  the  east  end  of  the  lake,  Vlocho,  the 
mighty  hill  fortress,  made  such  an  impression  that 
many  regarded  the  discussion  as  one  in  which  it  was 
still  worth  while  to  sum  up  the  pros  and  cons,  add- 
ing :  "  If  Vlocho  is  not  Thermon,  give  us  some 
adequate  name  for  it."  But  the  spade,  which  has 
again  substantiated  its  claims  to  be  the  best  archaeol- 
ogist, has  relegated  all  this  discussion  to  the  limbo 
of  old  notions.  Whatever  Vlocho  was,  it  was  not 
Thermon.  A  score  or  more  of  inscriptions  found 
by  Soteiriades  at  Palaeo-Bazaar,  speaking  of  the 
affairs  of  the  iEtolian  League,  show  that  he  has 
found  the  capital.  What  makes  the  identification 
absolutely  certain  is  the  inscription  containing  the 
treaty  between  the  iEtolians  and  Philip  of  Mace- 
don,  in  which  it  is  provided  that  of  two  copies  one 
shall  be  set  up  at  Thermon,  and  the  other  at 
Delphi,  which  was  at  the  time  the  ecclesiastical 
capital  of  the  league.  The  French  have  found  one 
copy  at  Delphi ;  Soteiriades  found  the  other,  an 
exact  duplicate,  at  Kephalovrysi.  After  that,  one 
surely  need  not  go  elsewhere  to  seek  for  Thermon. 
A  suggestive  trifle  was  found  here  before  the  exca- 
vations, viz.,  a  life-size  bronze  thumb  of  good  work, 
showing  the  dint  of  a  hammer  on  the  knuckle. 
This  probably  belonged  to  one  of  the  two  thousand 
statues  destroyed  by  Philip. 

Leaving  Kephalovrysi  at  two  o'clock,  instead  of 

74 


JETOL1A 


taking  the  shortest  road  to  Agrinion  along  the  north 
shore  of  the  lake,  at  my  suggestion,  which  again 
sprung  from  the  desire  of  seeing  something  new,  we 
circled  the  lake,  following  the  line  of  Philip's  retreat 
along  the  south  side,  and  identifying  among  other 
places  the  site  of  Trichonion,  which  gave  its  name  to 
the  lake.  Passing  between  this  lake  and  its  neighbor 
to  the  west,  we  reached  Agrinion  just  before  dark, 
and  found  there  a  new,  clean  hotel.  The  railroad  is 
beginning  to  work  its  wonders  even  in  Agrinion. 

This  flourishing  town  of  about  ten  thousand  in- 
habitants, the  centre  of  the  most  important  tobacco- 
growing  region  in  Greece,  and  the  capital  of  ^Etolia, 
has  stolen  its  name  from  ancient  Agrinion,  which 
lay  about  seven  miles  away  on  the  Acheloos.  Its 
real  name  is  Vrachori,  which  is  still  used  by  many 
who  do  not  fancy  the  revamping  of  classical  names, 
especially  when  they  are  foisted  on  to  towns  that  are 
not  entitled  to  them,  and  have  an  honorable  history 
of  their  own  which  has  been  gained  under  the 
name  which  it  is  proposed  to  set  aside.  Vrachori 
is  such  a  case. 

Not  till  after  dinner  did  we  present  ourselves  at 
the  house  of  the  doctor  who  had  bountifully  enter- 
tained my  friend  and  me  last  year  for  two  nights. 
Both  he  and  his  wife  seemed  hurt  that  we  had  not 
all  four  of  us  come  unannounced  straight  to  them, 
and  extorted  from  us  the  promise  that  on  our  re- 
turn from  Arta  we  would  spend  a  night  with  them. 

75 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

"But  these  things  lay  on  the  knees  of  the  gods." 
After  starting  off  hopefully  in  the  morning,  when 
almost  in  sight  of  Stratos  my  bicycle  met  with  a 
collapse,  which  we  tried  in  vain  to  remedy  ;  and 
the  afternoon  train  bore  me  in  great  tribulation 
through  the  front  door  of  iEtolia  back  to  Patras 
and  Athens. 

The  next  year,  and  pretty  nearly  every  succeed- 
ing year,  brought  me  again  to  this  most  romantic 
part  of  Greece,  so  little  known  by  modern  travel- 
lers, and  so  little  famed  in  ancient  history,  but  full 
of  walls  and  acropolises  which  cry  out  for  a  name. 
On  the  last  of  these  visits  we  climbed  Vlocho  on 
a  rather  hot  day.  To  judge  from  the  exhaustion 
which  even  the  strongest  felt,  as  well  as  from  the 
appearance  of  the  mountain,  for  Vlocho  is  really  a 
mountain,  we  have  here  the  highest  acropolis  in 
Greece.  It  looks  down  upon  Trichonis  to  the 
south  and  back  into  the  rugged  peaks  of  iEtolia  to 
the  north,  overtopping  all  the  foot-hills  of  those 
mountains.  Its  walls  also  match  the  commanding 
position.  It  is  no  wonder  that  Leake  took  it  for 
the  great  central  citadel  of  the  ^Etolians,  none  other 
than  Thermon.  But  not  only  has  Thermon  been 
positively  identified,  as  has  been  already  mentioned, 
but  Vlocho  has  been  shown  by  an  inscription  found 
by  Soteiriades  to  be  the  acropolis  of  the  Thestiaei, 
a  merely  tribal  gathering  place.  This  solution  is  a 
surprise,  a  sort  of  anticlimax.    It  is  an  equally  great 

76 


iETOLIA 

surprise  that  Thermon  had  no  acropolis  at  all,  but 
was  a  gathering-place  in  a  plain.  Its  situation, 
however,  high  up  above  the  mountainous  north 
shore  of  Lake  Trichonis  near  its  eastern  end,  made 
it  difficult  for  an  enemy  to  attack ;  and  when  Philip 
V.  broke  into  the  nest  of  the  robber  brood,  de- 
stroyed it,  and  got  safely  back  to  his  connections, 
it  was  the  master  stroke  of  that  enterprising  and 
rash  boy  king.  The  ^Etolians  got  a  sweet  revenge 
more  than  twenty  years  later,  when,  at  Kynoskeph- 
alae,  they  contributed  materially  to  Philip's  crush- 
ing defeat  by  Flamininus. 

The  usual  approach  to  Thermon  is  from  Agrinion 
over  a  level  road  along  the  north  shore  until  the 
middle  of  that  shore-line  is  reached.  Then  comes 
a  steady  climb  until  one  gains  an  altitude  of  per- 
haps two  thousand  feet,  directly  over  the  surface  of 
the  lake,  and  then  another  more  gentle  climb  away 
from  the  lake,  and  the  goal  is  reached.  There  is  a 
fine  carriage-road  all  the  way. 

The  one  thing  that  iBtolia,  as  well  as  Acarnania, 
lacks  to  make  it  famous  is  the  bard,  or,  failing  him, 
the  historian.  No  Homer  or  Sophocles  or  Pindar 
has  made  the  beautiful  Lake  Trichonis  into  a  more 
than  earthly  lake.  The  great  historians  have  found 
elsewhere  more  attractive  themes  than  the  wars 
of  the  men  who  inhabited  these  mighty  fortresses. 
The  modern  traveller  likes  to  follow  the  footsteps 
of  the  poets  and  historians ;  and  so  Attica,  Argos, 

77 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


Boeotia,  and  Thessaly  are  visited  and  enjoyed,  while 
the  stream  passes  by  iEtolia  and  Acarnania  "  on  the 
other  side."  But  there  are  some  who  will  be  drawn 
by  that  beautiful  Lake  Trichonis,  by  the  bountiful 
Acheloos,  by  the  Gulf  of  Ambrakia,  and  by  the 
Gorge  of  Klissoura,  which  runs  through  Mount 
Arakynthos,  and  only  lacks  a  stream  to  make  it  sur- 
pass Tempe.  This  number  may  increase  so  that  in 
ten  years  more,  demand  creating  supply,  even  Arta 
may  provide  an  inn  where  the  weary  traveller  may 
lie  down  to  pleasant  dreams. 


78 


THERMOPYLAE 

WE  twelve  members  of  the  American  School  had 
spent  three  rather  cold  and  rainy  November 
days  at  Delphi,  managing  to  see  between  the  showers, 
perhaps  better  called  tempests,  that  kept  sweeping  up 
the  valley  of  the  Pleistos,  most  of  the  important  ob- 
jects both  in  the  museum  and  in  the  excavation 
area.  After  so  much  tantalizing  promise,  followed 
by  disappointment,  it  began  to  seem  very  doubtful 
whether  the  six  bicyclists  of  the  party  could  carry 
out  their  intention  of  prolonging  the  trip  into 
Thessaly.  The  morning  of  the  fourth  day  looked 
about  like  the  three  preceding  mornings,  except  that 
the  storm  centre,  on  and  around  Mount  Korax  to 
the  west  of  Parnassus  and  Delphi,  had  at  last  broken 
up.  Just  this  little  encouragement  led  five  of  us  to 
move  on,  and  we  slipped  quickly  down  the  long 
winding  road  to  the  foot  of  the  high  slope  on  the 
top  of  which  Delphi  stands. 

After  we  had  toiled  through  mud  to  Amphissa,  we 
began  to  reap  the  benefits  of  a  clearing  and  bracing 
north  wind.  We  had  an  exhilarating  climb  of  three 
hours  up  the  Amblema  Pass,  which  leads  over  the 
ridge  connecting  Parnassus  with  the  still  higher 
mountains  to  the  west.    Before  we  got  to  the  top, 

79 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

which  is  the  backbone  between  the  Corinthian  Gulf 
and  the  Gulf  of  Malis,  a  cold  cloud,  which  we  may 
as  well  call  a  winter  storm,  came  rushing  out  of  the 
gap  to  meet  us  like  an  army  debouching  from  a  covert. 
We  began  to  fear  that  Doris,  into  which  we  were  go- 
ing to  pass,  was  another  storm  centre,  and  our  feeling 
of  pity  for  the  one  man  who  had  been  prudent  enough 
to  take  his  bicycle  back  to  Athens  began  to  change 
to  envy.  But  after  dropping  a  thousand  feet  or  more 
into  Doris  we  got  below  the  storm,  and  the  roads 
became  somewhat  drier.  When  we  were  at  the 
level  of  that  upland  plain  they  were  quite  good. 
Doris  had  been  a  storm  centre  in  the  morning,  but 
at  noon  was  almost  clear.    What  luck  ! 

Confronting  us  on  the  north  side  of  the  plain  was 
another  mountain  barrier  which  shut  out  Thermopylae 
from  our  view.  Rain-clouds  were  playing  around  this 
mountain.  After  luncheon  at  Gravia,  it  was  a  mat- 
ter of  from  two  to  three  hours  to  get  across  the  plain 
and  partly  climb  and  partly  circumvent  this  second 
barrier.  And  then  came  a  most  exhilarating  ex- 
perience. Here  was  the  sight  of  a  lifetime.  The 
Gulf  of  Malis  far  below  us,  the  road  visible  in  all  its 
extent  winding  like  an  enormous  serpent  down  the 
side  of  the  mountain  to  the  plain  from  two  to  three 
thousand  feet  below  us,  and  then  running  straight  as 
an  arrow  to  Lamia,  Mount  Othrys  in  the  back- 
ground, Thermopylae  to  the  right,  and,  soon  after, 
Tymphrestos  to  the  left,  with  the  Spercheios  wind. 

80 


THERMOPYLAE 


ing  down  from  it.  Historic  associations  apart — as 
if  they  ever  could  be  apart ! — this  is  a  landscape  not 
easily  surpassed.  It  is  one  of  those  views  which 
seem  to  gain  in  power  with  repetition.  It  was  the 
fifth  time  that  I  had  seen  and  felt  it ;  and  I  firmly 
believe  that  I  had  a  keener  relish  in  the  view  than 
my  companions  who  saw  it  for  the  first  time. 

Bicycling  down  the  face  of  a  mountain  like  that, 
over  curves  that  take  you  half  a  mile  or  a  mile  in 
one  direction,  and  then  as  far  in  the  other  direction, 
is  about  the  nearest  approach  to  flying  that  has  yet 
been  given  to  man.  One  seems  to  be  floating  in 
the  ether,  and  dropping  at  will  down  to  the  earth 
like  a  bird  on  the  wing. 

In  this  winding  down  the  mountain-side  we 
crossed  probably  more  than  once  the  path  by  which 
the  Greek  traitor  led  Hydarnes  and  his  Ten  Thou- 
sand Immortals  around  in  the  rear  of  the  Greeks 
and  cut  off  their  retreat.  But  it  was  getting  too  late 
now  to  see  and  study  Thermopylae  by  the  light  of 
that  day.  Lamia  was  our  goal,  a  city  where  one 
finds  comfortable  quarters  and  good  eating.  We 
had  heard  far  back  on  the  road  that  the  bridge  over 
the  Spercheios  had  been  carried  away  two  years  be- 
fore, and  had  not  yet  been  replaced.  Some  said 
that  we  should  find  a  boat  to  ferry  us  over,  while 
others  said  that  there  was  neither  bridge  nor  ferry, 
which  seemed  incredible,  since  we  were  on  the 
great  highway  from  the  Corinthian  Gulf  to  northern 

81 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

Greece.  But  when  we  reached  the  Spercheios  at 
twenty  minutes  before  five  o'clock  the  worst  that 
had  been  told  us  came  true.  No  ferry-man  was 
there.  One  sorrowful-looking  Greek  who  was, 
figuratively  speaking,  in  the  same  boat  with  us,  sug- 
gested that  we  go  back  to  a  village  called  Moscho- 
chori,  which  we  had  passed  about  two  miles  back, 
the  road  leaving  it  about  a  quarter  of  a  mile  to  the 
east.  He  thought  that  we  should  there  find  the 
ferry-man,  who  had  abandoned  his  post  a  little  too 
early,  and  had  left  his  boat  in  plain  sight  bound  to  a 
tree  with  chain  and  padlock.  This  suggestion  had 
the  advantage  that,  in  case  we  failed  to  find  the 
boatman  and  to  induce  him  to  return,  we  might  at 
least  find  shelter  in  the  village,  poor  as  it  was,  which 
would  in  the  cold  weather  be  better  than  passing 
the  night  in  the  open  air. 

I  had  on  two  former  occasions  failed  to  reach 
Lamia  at  nightfall  and  been  obliged  to  pass  the 
night  in  this  region  ;  once  in  1890,  very  near  where 
we  were  then  standing,  in  a  barn  filled  with  corn- 
husks,  and  again,  ten  years  later,  under  the  hospitable 
roof  of  the  chief  of  police  at  Molo,  to  the  east  of 
Thermopylae.  But  this  time  it  seemed  as  if,  with  a 
sufficient  outlay  of  energy,  we  ought  to  pass  over 
Jordan  into  a  land  of  milk  and  honey.  The  first 
step  was  to  go  back.  Just  where  we  were  turning 
from  the  high-road  to  go  into  the  village  there  met 
us  a  man  on  horseback,  who  proved  to  be  the  village 

82 


THERMOPYLAE 


doctor  going  to  visit  a  sick  woman.  The  husband 
of  the  patient  was  trotting  along  behind  him.  No 
sooner  did  the  doctor  hear  our  story  than  he  turned 
to  the  man  following  him,  and  said :  "  Go  into  the 
village  and  tell  the  ferry-man  that  if  he  doesn't  get 
back  to  the  ferry  as  fast  as  his  legs  can  carry  him  I 
will  split  his  head  for  him.  Tell  him  there  are 
strangers  waiting  to  get  over  to  Lamia."  The  word 
"stranger"  has  great  power  in  Greece.  If  the 
stranger  is  not,  as  in  Homer,  under  the  special  pro- 
tection of  Zeus,  he  is  under  the  protection  of  all 
good  men,  which  is  perhaps  quite  as  efficient. 

At  this  point  came  a  curious  turn.  The  man  who 
was  to  call  the  ferry-man  said :  "  But  the  ferry-man 
will  not  believe  me  when  I  tell  him  that  strangers 
are  waiting."  The  doctor  saw  the  point,  and  said  : 
"  Yes,  one  of  you  must  go  with  him."  I  decided 
that  I  was  needed,  and  after  a  hard  tramp  quite  a 
distance  through  mud  about  a  foot  deep — I  would 
not  abate  one  tittle  of  nine  inches — I  saw  the  effect 
of  the  message.  The  ferry-man  saddled  a  horse  and 
shot  off  in  the  direction  of  the  missing  bridge  as  if 
he  believed  the  doctor  was  ready  to  do  what  he  had 
said  he  would  do.  When  we  reached  the  ferry  all 
was  in  readiness  for  our  passage,  and,  shortly  after 
seven  o'clock  we  sat  down  to  dinner  in  Lamia.  As 
the  doctor  and  his  follower  went  over  in  the  same 
ferry-boat  it  is  a  fair  inference  that  they  had  also  a 
personal  interest  in  stirring  up  the  ferry-man. 

83 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


The  fact  that  this  bridge  had  been  lacking  for  two 
years  on  the  only  high-road  which  leads  directly  from 
Thessaly,  not  only  to  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  but  also, 
by  a  fork  in  Doris,  to  Boeotia  and  Attica,  is  a  sign 
of  the  times.  The  people  of  Lamia  complain  against 
the  Government,  for  this  is  a  national  road  made 
and  neglected  by  the  general  Government.  Incom- 
plete in  1890  when  I  first  went  over  it  on  foot,  it 
was  completed  at  great  expense,  and  it  seems  reck- 
less extravagance  to  neglect  it  now.  Greece  might 
better  afford  to  spare  on  its  army  and  navy,  and  put 
the  savings  into  internal  improvements.  The  bridge 
over  the  Peneios,  on  the  high-road  between  Trik- 
kala  and  Larisa,  the  two  principal  cities  of  Thessaly, 
has  been  down  for  eight  or  ten  years  and  its  place 
has  been  supplied  by  a  ferry-boat.  The  long- 
projected  railroad,  designed  to  connect  Athens  with 
Larisa,  and  ultimately  with  Europe,  was  nearly  half 
finished  in  1894,  and  until  1902  nothing  was  done 
to  carry  on  the  work,  or  to  save  from  disintegration 
the  part  already  finished.  After  a  lapse  of  eight 
years  a  new  company  has  taken  up  the  work  and  is 
vigorously  pushing  it ;  but  the  old  material  has  been 
declared  to  be  of  no  value.  A  sense  of  waste  in  such 
matters  makes  one  feel  that  Greece  is  far  from  being 
a  Switzerland  in  thrift.  It  hardly  affords  a  basis 
upon  which  a  "  greater  Greece  "  can  be  built  up. 

The  next  day  we  took  Thermopylae  at  our  leisure, 
passing  out  from  Lamia  over  the  Spercheios  on  the 

84 


THERMOPYLAE 


bridge  of  Alamana,  at  which  Diakos,  famous  in 
ballad,  resisted  with  a  small  band  a  Turkish  army, 
until  he  was  at  last  captured  and  taken  to  Lamia  to 
be  impaled.  Luckily  this  one  bridge  over  the  Sper- 
cheios  remains,  and  Thessaly  has  a  road  open  to  the 
east  through  Thermopylae  and  Atalante.  The  day 
was  perfect,  a  day  to  make  an  old  man  young.  We 
were  like  boys  at  play,  in  spite  of  the  overpowering 
associations  of  the  place.  We  sat  down  in  the  sun- 
light and  dabbled  with  our  feet  in  the  hot  sulphur 
stream,  which  has  given  its  name  to  the  place, 
Thermopylae  meaning  "  Hot  Gates,"  and  when  a 
serious  shepherd  came  and  looked  at  us  in  wonder- 
ment we  regarded  him  as  the  "  Old  Man  of  Ther- 
mopylae," in  that  character-sketch,  "  There  was  an 
old  man  of  Thermopylae  who  never  did  anything 
properly."  We  had  him  photographed  in  that 
character,  and  fancied  him  doomed  to  return  for  a 
space  to  the  scene  of  his  excesses  and  to  behave 
himself  "properly."  We  then  went  through  the  pass 
as  far  east  as  Molo,  and  after  taking  luncheon  there 
returned  to  the  pass  for  serious  study,  i.e.,  for  trac- 
ing as  far  as  possible  the  position  and  movements 
of  the  antagonists  in  the  great  battle. 

It  may  be  taken  as  a  well-known  fact  that  the 
Spercheios  has  since  the  time  of  Herodotus  made  so 
large  an  alluvial  deposit  around  its  mouth  that,  if  he 
himself  should  return  to  earth,  he  would  hardly 
recognize  the  spot  which  he  has  described  so  mi- 

85 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

nutely.  The  western  horn,  which  in  his  time  came 
down  so  near  to  the  gulf  as  to  leave  space  for  a 
single  carriage-road  only,  is  now  separated  from  it 
by  more  than  a  mile  of  plain.  Each  visit  to  Ther- 
mopylae has,  however,  deepened  my  conviction  that 
Herodotus  exaggerated  the  impregnability  of  this 
pass.  The  mountain  spur  which  formed  it  did  not 
rise  so  abruptly  from  the  sea  as  to  form  an  impas- 
sable barrier  to  the  advance  of  a  determined  an- 
tagonist. It  is  of  course  difficult  ground  to  operate 
on,  but  certainly  not  impossible.  The  other  narrow 
place,  nearly  two  miles  to  the  east  of  this,  is  still 
more  open,  a  fact  that  is  to  be  emphasized,  because 
many  topographers,  including  Colonel  Leake,  hold 
that  the  battle  actually  took  place  there,  as  the 
great  battle  between  the  Romans  and  Antiochos 
certainly  did.  This  eastern  pass  is,  to  be  sure,  no 
place  where  "  a  thousand  may  well  be  stopped  by 
three/'  and  there  cannot  have  taken  place  any  great 
transformation  here  since  classical  times,  inasmuch 
as  this  region  is  practically  out  of  reach  of  the 
Spercheios,  and  the  deposit  from  the  hot  sulphur 
streams,  which  has  so  broadened  the  theatre-shaped 
area  enclosed  by  the  two  horns,  can  hardly  have  con- 
tributed to  changing  the  shape  of  the  eastern  horn 
itself.  Artificial  fortification  was  always  needed 
here  ;  but  it  is  very  uncertain  whether  any  of  the 
stones  that  still  remain  can  be  claimed  as  parts  of 
such  fortification.    It  is  a  fine  position  for  an  in- 

86 


O 


o 

— 
H 


THERMOPYLAE 


ferior  force  to  choose  for  defence  against  a  superior 
one ;  but  while  it  cannot  be  declared  with  absolute 
certainty  that  this  is  not  the  place  where  the  fight- 
ing took  place,  yet  the  western  pass  fits  better 
the  description  of  Herodotus.  Besides  this,  if  the 
western  pass  had  been  abandoned  to  the  Persians 
at  the  outset  the  fact  would  have  been  worth  men- 
tioning. 

As  to  the  heroic  deed  itself,  the  view  that  Leoni- 
das  threw  away  his  own  life  and  that  of  the  four 
thousand,  that  it  was  magnificent  but  not  strategy, 
not  war,  does  not  take  into  account  the  fact  that 
Sparta  had  for  nearly  half  a  century  been  looked  to 
as  the  military  leader  of  Greece.  It  was  audacious 
in  the  Athenians  to  fight  the  battle  of  Marathon 
without  them,  and  they  did  so  only  because  the 
Spartans  did  not  come  at  their  call.  Sparta  had 
not  come  to  Thermopylae  in  force,  it  is  true ;  but 
her  king  wras  there  with  three  hundred  of  her  best 
men.  Only  by  staying  and  fighting  could  he  show 
that  Sparta  held  by  right  the  place  she  had  won. 
It  had  to  be  done.  "  So  the  glory  of  Sparta  was 
not  blotted  out."  Had  Sparta  shown  the  white 
feather  here,  and  a  retreat  would  have  been  inter- 
preted as  showing  the  white  feather,  she  would 
have  lost  prestige  with  the  rest  of  the  Greeks ;  and 
in  that  case  it  is  as  good  as  certain  that  Plataea 
would  never  have  been  fought.  But  besides  show- 
ing the  high   statecraft  which  the  occasion  de- 

87 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

manded,  Leonidas  was  performing  the  simple  duty 
of  obedience  to  Spartan  law,  not  to  retreat  before 
an  enemy.  He  had  been  sent  to  hold  the  post  ; 
and  he  stayed  to  the  end ;  and  there  is  no  more 
stirring  clarion  note  in  all  that  high-pitched  story 
of  the  Persian  war  in  Herodotus  than  the  epitaph 
inscribed  on  the  monument  to  the  fallen  Spartans, 
"  Stranger,  tell  the  Lacedemonians  that  we  lie  here 
in  obedience  to  their  laws."  Whether  Simonides 
felt  the  need  of  simplicity  and  brevity,  or  whether 
Spartan  taste  prescribed  it,  it  is  at  any  rate  most 
fitting  that  boasting  is  omitted.  The  deed  was  so 
great  that  one  little  note  of  brag,  or  even  some 
little  amplifying  and  embellishing,  would  have  be- 
littled it.  It  is  stirring  to  read  those  other  equally 
brief  and  equally  simple  lines  of  Simonides  in- 
scribed on  the  monument  erected  for  the  total 
number  who  fought  and  fell:  "  Four  thousand  from 
Peloponnesus  fought  here  with  three  millions." 

One  may  have  read,  and  read  often,  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  battle  in  the  school-room,  but  he  reads  it 
with  different  eyes  on  the  spot,  when  he  can  look 
up  at  the  hillock  crowned  with  a  ruined  cavalry 
barrack  just  inside  the  western  pass  and  say  to  him- 
self :  "  Here  on  this  hill  they  fought  their  last  fight 
and  fell  to  the  last  man.  Here  once  stood  the 
monuments  to  Leonidas,  to  the  three  hundred,  and 
to  the  four  thousand." 

The  very  monuments  have  crumbled  to  dust,  but 

88 


THERMOPYLAE 

the  great  deed  lives  on.  We  rode  back  to  Lamia 
under  the  spell  of  it.  It  was  as  if  we  had  been  in 
church  and  been  held  by  a  great  preacher  who 
knows  how  to  touch  the  deepest  chords  of  the 
heart.  Euboea  was  already  dark  blue,  while  the 
sky  above  it  was  shaded  from  pink  to  purple. 
Tymphrestos  in  the  west  was  bathed  in  the  light  of 
the  sun  that  had  gone  down  behind  it.  The  whole 
surrounding  was  most  stirring,  and  there  was  ever 
sounding  in  our  hearts  that  deep  bass  note,  "  What 
they  did  here."  Even  when  we  were  afterward  en- 
joying the  great  walls  of  the  Acropolis  of  Pharsalos 
and  the  Vale  of  Tempe  we  kept  thinking  of  Ther- 
mopylae. 


89 


THESSALY 


HESSALY  is  in  a  certain  sense  a  land  apart 


JL  from  the  rest  of  Greece.  It  was  so  in  an- 
tiquity. In  spite  of  being  the  home  of  Jason,  of 
Achilles,  and  of  Alcestis,  and  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  "  snowy  Olympus,"  the  home  of  the  Greek 
gods,  looked  down  upon  it,  the  stream  of  its  history 
flowed  apart.  In  the  Persian  war  it  was  prevented 
by  force  from  taking  any  honorable  part ;  but  in 
the  Peloponnesian  war,  which  called  all  the  rest  of 
Greece  to  arms  and  divided  it  into  two  camps,  it 
willingly  stood  aloof.  The  same  may  be  said  of 
most  of  the  smaller  wars  which  followed  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian war.  Once  only  did  it  appear  that  it 
was  going  to  take  a  part,  and  indeed  a  leading  part, 
in  the  affairs  of  Greece.  But  the  assassination  of 
Jason  of  Pherae,  who  seemed  about  to  play  the  role 
afterward  played  by  the  Macedonians,  sent  Thes- 
saly  again  on  her  separate  way. 

To-day  also  Thessaly  is  a  land  apart.  When  the 
Kingdom  of  Greece  was  established  by  the  Euro- 
pean Powers  Thessaly  was  not  included  in  it.  After 
it  had  become  a  part  of  the  kingdom  in  1880  it 
again  fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Turks  in  the  disas- 
trous war  of  1897,  living  through  two  sad  years  of 


THESSALY 


subjection  which  were  not  shared  by  the  rest  of 
Greece.  It  has  also  suffered  isolation  from  the  rest 
of  Greece  in  that  while  the  network  of  railroads 
constantly  extending  out  from  Athens  has  already 
taken  in  most  of  Peloponnesus,  and  even  iEtolia,  it 
has  not  yet  been  extended  to  Thessaly.  To  reach 
it  one  must  make  a  voyage  by  sea. 

But  this  very  isolation  has  always  been  to  the  en- 
thusiastic traveller  an  added  charm.  Inaccessibility 
adds  interest.  The  usual  approach  is  by  steamer 
from  Piraeus,  and  requires,  according  to  the  time- 
table, twenty-four  hours ;  but  it  actually  varies  from 
twenty-four  to  forty-eight  hours,  according  to  the 
weather  and  the  amount  of  freight  to  be  handled 
on  the  way.  The  journey  in  itself  is  so  charming 
that  one  need  not  chafe  at  delay,  and  might  well 
prefer  this  method  of  approach  even  after  railroad 
communication  has  been  established.  Particularly 
fine  is  the  long  stretch  between  Euboea  and  the 
mainland,  where  mountain  succeeds  mountain,  with 
Thermopylae  thrown  in. 

The  end  of  the  journey  is  the  finest  part  of  it,  if 
one  has  the  good  fortune  to  enter  the  great  Bay  of 
Volo,  called  in  ancient  times  the  Gulf  of  Pagasae, 
by  daylight  and  in  the  winter.  Taking  associations 
and  everything  into  account,  there  are  few  finer 
sights  in  the  world  than  that  which  here  presents  it- 
self. In  front  of  you  is  Olympus,  majestic,  tower- 
ing above  the  low  range  that  separates  the  territory 

91 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

of  Volo  from  the  great  basin  of  Thessaly.  So  near 
does  it  seem  that  one  hardly  thinks  of  it  as  being 
beyond  the  northern  border,  over  in  Turkey.  The 
long  ridge  of  Pelion  is  close  at  hand  on  the  right, 
with  its  twenty-four  villages,  covered  on  the  occa- 
sion of  one  of  my  winter  visits  by  twelve  or  four- 
teen feet  of  snow,  so  that  they  abandoned  for  a  week 
all  attempts  at  communicating  with  one  another. 
What  Pelion  lacks  in  height  it  makes  up  in  length, 
and  its  bulk  is  great.  It  seems  a  strange  thought 
of  Homer  to  make  the  giants  pile  Pelion  upon 
Ossa,  which  is  a  shapely  and  rather  sharp  cone. 
Vergil  seems  to  do  even  worse  in  making  them  put 
Olympus  on  the  top  of  the  pile.  Can  it  be  that 
both  poets  made  the  attempt  to  pile  the  mass  of 
Olympus  or  Pelion  on  top  of  the  pointed  Ossa  a 
part  of  the  daring  deed  ?  Either  Olympus  or 
Pelion  would  be  the  natural  base  on  which  to  pile 
up  the  other  mountains.  By  turning  around  and 
looking  astern  one  sees  Parnassus,  which  in  ordi- 
nary company  would  absorb  attention,  but  is  here 
dwarfed  by  the  sight  of  Olympus.  In  such  com- 
pany Othrys,  on  our  left,  hardly  counts  at  all. 

The  near  view  with  its  associations  claims  atten- 
tion. Here  in  the  middle  of  Volo  is  the  site  of 
lolkos,  from  which  the  Argonauts  sailed  out  through 
this  very  bay  into  the  distant  Euxine  on  their  dar- 
ing quest.  To  the  left  are  the  massive  walls  of 
Pagasae,  which  in  classical  times  controlled  the 

92 


THESSALY 


region.  To  the  right  is  the  still  later  controller  of 
the  bay,  Demetrias,  founded  by  the  Macedonian  De- 
metrios  Polyorketes  to  be  with  Chalkis  and  Corinth 
one  of  the  "  fetters  of  Greece." 

On  my  second  visit  to  this  region,  which,  by  an 
unexpected  chance,  was  only  about  a  month  after 
my  first,  having  had  occasion — a  not  unusual  thing 
in  Greece — to  wait  all  the  afternoon  for  a  return 
steamer  to  Athens,  I  had  a  boatman  named  Leoni- 
das,  from  Sparta,  too,  row  me  out  to  Demetrias, 
from  which  I  got,  as  I  then  supposed,  my  last  view 
on  earth  of  Olympus.  I  then  floated  aimlessly 
about  the  bay  until  sunset,  steeped  in  sunshine  and 
mythological  associations.  I  was  so  much  "  in  the 
spirit "  that  I  could  almost  see  the  centaurs  pranc- 
ing along  the  slopes  of  Pelion.  Leonidas  also 
seemed  to  enter  into  the  spirit  of  the  thing,  and 
to  become  quite  sympathetic,  even  if  we  did  not 
or  could  not  talk  much.  When  I  said  to  him, 
"  Leonidas,  do  you  know  that  the  gods  used  to  live 
around  here?"  he  said,  "  Yes,  yes,"  with  apparent 
enthusiasm.  I  suspected,  however,  afterward  that  his 
enthusiasm  was  only  skin  deep,  and  that  his  chief 
pleasure  in  the  affair  was  that  he  was  getting  pay 
for  a  whole  afternoon's  work  without  really  doing 
much.  I,  on  my  part,  was  satisfied  to  squander  on 
him  the  munificent  sum  of  sixty  cents  for  giving 
me  the  setting  to  such  pleasant  day-dreaming. 

I  am  not  going  to  recount  my  successive  visits  to 

93 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

Thessaly,  but  only  to  recall  certain  vivid  impressions, 
I  have  twice  entered  it  on  the  southwest,  from  Lamia 
over  the  passes  of  Othrys,  and  once  on  the  north- 
west over  the  Zygos  pass  in  the  great  Pindos  range, 
and  it  is  difficult  to  say  which  is  the  most  impressive 
approach,  one  of  these  or  the  usual  one  through  the 
Bay  of  Volo.  Wherever  you  look  down  into  the 
great  basin  from  any  part  of  the  rim  of  mountains 
surrounding  it,  or  look  back  at  this  rim  from  any 
part  of  the  plain,  you  are  impressed  with  the  beauty 
of  the  plain  and  its  surroundings. 

On  my  first  visit — how  vivid  are  first  impres- 
sions ! — I  came  by  the  usual  route  with  a  com- 
panion who  was  in  a  hurry.  He  had  an  imperative 
engagement  before  him.  We  had  a  schedule  to 
keep,  and  every  hour  was  important.  It  was  the 
only  time  that  I  have  done  Thessaly  by  schedule. 
Work  on  the  Larisa  Railroad  was  being  pushed, 
and  we  unloaded  so  much  material  for  that  work  at 
Chalkis  that  we  did  not  get  off  until  afternoon,  and, 
at  Stylidha,  the  port  of  Lamia,  we  kept  unloading 
until  after  midnight.  The  result  was  that  we  did 
not  reach  Volo  until  the  next  morning,  over  twelve 
hours  behind  time.  By  a  dash  for  the  station  we 
secured  the  first  train,  and  reached  Larisa  at  about 
ten  o'clock.  Thessaly  has  had  since  1884  its  OWD 
very  good  railroad  system,  starting  from  Volo  and 
branching  at  Velestino,  the  ancient  Pherae,  one 
branch  going  to  Larisa  and  the  other  to  Trikkala 

94 


THESSALY 


and  beyond.  This  system  connects  the  three  prin- 
cipal cities,  Volo,  Larisa,  and  Trikkala,  each  of  about 
fifteen  thousand  inhabitants,  and  brings  the  traveller 
near  to  all  the  interesting  points  of  the  land. 

In  order  to  carry  out  our  schedule  it  was  neces- 
sary for  us  to  see  the  Vale  of  Tempe  that  day. 
Without  losing  a  minute  we  engaged  our  carriage  at 
the  station,  a  mile  from  the  town,  and  drove  through 
the  town,  where  we  gathered  a  little  stock  of  pro- 
visions while  the  driver  changed  horses.  Of  course, 
he  had  told  us  that  our  scheme  was  impossible,  but 
we  forced  him  along.  In  spite  of  mud  (it  was 
March,  and  Thessaly  is  always  muddy  at  that  time), 
we  got  through  Tempe,  and  came  back,  reaching 
Larisa  before  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening.  With- 
out a  full  moon  it  would  have  been  impossible  to 
do  Tempe  that  day.  On  that  evening  we  caught 
for  the  first  time  the  notes  of  the  Greek  frogs, 
Brek-ke-ke-kek'koak-koak,  reproducing  Aristophanes 
with  the  exception  of  a  few  sibilants. 

Tempe  is  one  of  the  two  great  show  pieces  of 
Thessaly.  Even  the  ancients,  who  are  often  said  to 
have  set  little  store  by  beauties  of  nature,  were  en- 
thusiastic over  Tempe,  although  they  appear  to  have 
paid  little  attention  to  the  other  great  show  piece, 
the  cliffs  of  Meteora.  Herodotus  records  that 
Xerxes  was  struck  with  wonder  at  the  great  defile 
five  miles  long  with  steep  sides  and  a  mighty  river, 
the  Peneios,  flowing  through  it.   One  fine  feature  of 

95 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


Tempe  is  also  the  view  which  one  gets  at  the  end,  out 
over  the  sea  to  the  site  of  Potidaea  and  Olynthos. 

The  Thessalian  legend  that  Poseidon  split  open 
with  his  trident  the  great  eastern  range  of  mountain, 
and  let  out  here  between  Ossa  and  Olympus  the 
water  which  had  made  Thessaly  a  lake,  is  strictly 
true  if  we  let  the  trident  represent  earthquake  force. 
Geology  accepts  the  legend  in  all  its  essential  feat- 
ures. Thessaly  was  until  comparatively  late  times, 
geologically  speaking,  a  lake.  It  is  now  a  lake 
bottom  of  inexhaustible  fertility. 

The  next  day,  instead  of  taking  the  train  back  to 
Pherae  and  over  the  other  branch  which  we  were 
going  to  traverse  later,  we  took  a  carriage  to  drive 
straight  across  due  west  to  Trikkala,  intending  to 
take  the  train  there  for  the  last  fourteen  miles  of 
the  journey  to  Kalabaka,  which  lies  at  the  foot  of 
the  Meteora  cliffs.  We  were  off  at  six  o'clock,  and 
had  over  eight  hours  for  our  drive  of  thirty-seven 
miles.  When  we  had  done  two-thirds  of  it  the 
driver  stopped  to  bait  his  horses.  He  knew  that  we 
had  taken  him  expressly  to  bring  us  to  Trikkala  in 
season  to  catch  the  train,  and  yet  he  waited  so  long 
that  it  became  very  doubtful  by  the  time  he  was 
ready  to  start  whether  we  could  do  it.  We  offered 
five  drachmas  extra  if  he  did  it ;  and  he  tried  hard 
to  get  them  then,  whipping  his  horses  unmercifully. 
The  result  was  that  we  saw  the  train  go  out  of  the 
station  as  we  got  into  the  outskirts  of  the  town. 

96 


THESSALY 

The  horses  were  unable  to  make  the  extra  four- 
teen miles  to  Kalabaka  that  night,  and  an  essential 
part  of  our  schedule  was  to  spend  the  night  at  one 
of  the  monasteries  perched  upon  the  picturesque 
rocks.  We  must  spend  that  very  night  there  or 
give  up  the  plan  entirely.  Our  driver  tried  in  vain 
to  get  other  horses  for  us.  One  man  promised  to 
come  with  a  carriage  in  half  an  hour,  and  at  the 
end  of  that  time  came  and  said  that  he  could  not  go, 
the  road  was  too  bad.  From  subsequent  experience 
I  judge  that  he  was  right.  Somebody  in  the 
crowd  of  interested  bystanders  suggested  that  we 
take  a  hand-car,  which  the  station-agent  could  give 
us  by  telegraphing  to  Volo  for  authorization  to  do 
so.  When  we  went  to  the  station-agent  with  our 
plan,  we  judged  by  his  answer  that  our  advisers  had 
been  mildly  guying  us.  By  this  time  quite  a  crowd 
had  gathered,  curious  to  see  what  we  would  do  next. 

We  now  gave  an  unexpected  turn  to  events  by 
picking  up  our  heels  and  our  very  small  packs  and 
starting  off  along  the  railroad  track,  at  a  good  ath- 
letic pace  for  Kalabaka.  Probably  the  crowd  ex- 
pected to  see  us  come  back  and  lodge  at  Trikkala ; 
but  we  reached  Kalabaka  in  three  hours  and  a  half, 
at  nearly  eight  o'clock.  Hungry  and  tired,  we  sat 
down  in  an  eating-house  and  began  our  supper  with 
the  feeling  that  we  had  missed  our  game,  except 
in  so  far  as  we  had  got  sight  of  the  wonderful 
rocks  which  towered  high  up  above  the  village. 

97 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

What  we  had  wanted  was  the  sensation  of  passing 
the  night  on  top  of  one  of  these  needles.  When  our 
desire  was  made  known  it  seemed  as  if  everybody 
in  the  village  was  determined  that  we  should  get 
into  the  monastery  that  night.  Some  went  and 
brought  the  astynomos  (chief  of  gendarmes),  and 
he  promptly  detailed  two  of  his  men  to  escort  us 
up  ;  and  as  soon  as  we  had  eaten  we  set  off.  Again 
the  full  moon  saved  us.  Without  it  it  would  have 
been  impossible  to  scale  the  heights,  even  with  the 
best  of  guides.  There  was  some  incidental  gain  in 
the  view  afforded  by  moonlight.  One  enormous 
round  tower,  about  fifty  times  as  large  as  the  fam- 
ous Heidelberg  Tower,  has  never  looked  to  me  by 
daylight  as  impressive  as  it  did  then  by  moonlight. 

When  at  last  we  came  to  the  bridge  which 
spanned  the  chasm  separating  the  cliff  on  which 
stood  the  monastery  of  St.  Stephen  from  the  body  of 
the  mountain  our  attendants  shouted  and  cracked 
their  whips  over  the  reverberating  chasm  until  a 
sleepy  monk  put  his  head  out  of  a  window  in  a  third 
story  and  said,  in  a  sleepy  voice  :  "  What  time  is  it 
now  ? "  On  being  told  that  it  was  ten  o'clock  he 
seemed  disinclined  to  admit  our  claim,  which  the 
gendarmes  urged  vehemently.  We  made  out  that 
the  gist  of  the  claim  was  that  here  were  strangers 
who  had  come  all  the  way  from  America,  ten  thou- 
sand miles  away,  just  to  see  that  monastery.  Sud- 
denly the  parleying  was  stopped  by  the  shutting  of 

98 


THESSALY 


the  window  We  thought  that  we  were  shut  out ; 
but  the  gendarmes  lingered  as  if  they  thought  their 
appeal  had  taken  effect ;  and,  in  fact,  after  a  delay  of 
several  minutes,  which  seemed  to  us  much  longer, 
we  heard  the  clapping  of  wooden  soles  along  the 
stone  flagging  inside  the  oaken  door,  which  was  soon 
after  swung  open.  We  went  to  sleep  that  night 
congratulating  ourselves  on  having  restored  by  our 
own  good  legs,  aided  by  a  kind  full  moon,  a  pro- 
gramme that  had  been  broken  by  a  shiftless  driver. 

The  next  morning,  after  climbing  up  St.  Trinity 
by  means  of  a  series  of  ladders  arranged  in  a  cleft  of 
the  rock,  we  caught  the  train  which  took  us  to  Phar- 
sala  at  noon.  From  there  we  walked  to  Domoko, 
since  made  famous  by  the  stand  made  by  the  Greek 
army  in  the  war  of  1897,  and  called  in  ancient 
times  Thaumakoi,  "  the  wonderful,"  on  account  of 
the  superb  view  of  the  great  plain  of  Thessaly  which 
it  affords.  On  the  following  day  we  reached  the 
port  of  Lamia,  slightly  stiff  from  the  bare  tables  on 
which  we  had  slept  at  Domoko,  and  there  ended 
our  Thessalian  trip. 

The  Meteora  (literally  " aloft")  cloisters  can 
hardly  be  enough  praised.  There  were  once  twenty- 
four  of  them,  all  perched  upon  these  needles.  They 
were  placed  there  in  the  fourteenth  century  for  the 
sake  of  security  from  robber  bands.  Only  about  a 
half-dozen  of  them  are  now  occupied  ;  the  rest  are 
wholly  or  partly  ruined.    St.  Stephen  is  the  only 

99 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

one  that  regularly  entertains  guests.  Two  of  the 
most  difficult  to  ascend,  the  Meteoron  and  St.  Bar- 
laam,  are  more  than  a  mile  away  from  St.  Stephen  ; 
and  an  ascent  of  these  is  not  easily  combined  with 
spending  the  night  at  St.  Stephen,  unless  one  spends 
there  all  the  next  day  and  night  also.  On  a  later 
visit  I  made  the  really  perilous  ascent  of  the  Me- 
teoron on  a  series  of  ladders  dangling  along  the 
perpendicular  face  of  the  needle,  1,820  feet  above 
the  sea-level,  and,  at  a  rough  estimate,  200  feet 
above  the  flat  rock  from  which  you  start  to 
climb.  When  I  had  once  gone  up  and  walked  about 
a  little  I  shrank  from  the  descent.  I  was  particularly 
nervous  when  I  started  downward  by  backing  out 
of  the  window^  and  holding  on  to  the  sill  with  my 
hands,  while  I  felt  for  the  rounds  of  the  ladder  below 
with  my  feet.  I  felt  then  that,  as  never  before,  I  had 
taken  my  life  into  my  hands.  When  we  asked  the 
monks  why  they  had  refused  to  wind  us  up  in  the 
basket  with  which  they  hauled  up  their  fuel  and 
supplies,  they  replied  that  there  were  so  few  of  them 
that  they  were  afraid  that  their  strength  would  give 
out  while  they  had  us  in  mid-air.  This  explanation 
satisfied  us  completely.  One  would  rather  trust  to 
his  own  hands  and  feet  than  to  an  insufficient  force 
of  monks.  But  since  the  least  failure  of  one's  own 
hands  or  feet  meant  certain  death,  one  is  satisfied  by 
having  made  the  ascent  once,  and  having  experienced 
a  sensation. 

100 


THESSALY 


At  St.  Stephen  the  hospitality  is  most  cheerfully 
accorded,  and  nothing  exacted  in  return  ;  but  one 
usually  puts  something  into  "  the  box,"  as  an  ex- 
pression of  thankfulness.  The  monasteries  are  all 
rich  landed  proprietors  and  need  not  our  poor  alms. 
I  recall  one  occasion  when  their  hospitality  was 
more  bountiful  than  timely.  Professor  Edward 
Capps  and  I  once  arrived  at  St.  Stephen  with  our 
wives  at  six  o'clock,  in  a  state  bordering  on  starva- 
tion. We  immediately  heard  a  clattering  of  dishes 
below  stairs,  and  pretty  soon  an  exhalation  of  savory 
odors  began  to  rise  from  the  kitchen.  From  time 
to  time  a  monk  would  bring  up  a  pitcher  or  a  plate, 
while  we  endured  the  pains  of  Tantalus  until  half- 
past  nine,  simply  because  our  hosts  wanted  to  do 
something  extra,  regarding  the  presence  of  ladies  as 
making  an  extraordinary  occasion.  A  little  cold 
meat  and  bread  at  six  o'clock  would  have  been  more 
keenly  appreciated  by  us  than  the  eight  courses  with 
which  they  finally  plied  us.  Let  the  traveller  in 
Greece  beware  of  special  occasions. 

My  last  three  visits  to  Thessaly  have  been  made 
by  bicycle.  One  gets  over  the  ground  more  rap- 
idly that  way.  For  example,  in  February,  1900, 
Mr.  Benjamin  Powell  and  I  rode  from  Trikkala  to 
Larisa  in  two  hours  and  thirty-seven  minutes,  in- 
cluding a  short  delay  at  the  ferry  over  the  Peneios. 
Baedeker  puts  this  journey  as  "37  miles,  8  hours, 
carriage  about  50  drachmas."    We  had  time  in  the 

101 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

afternoon  of  the  same  day  to  go  out  to  Tempe  and 
back  without  trespassing  much  upon  the  evening. 
Sometimes,  however,  the  tale  is  not  so  triumphant. 
In  February,  1902,  five  of  us  were  doing  this  same 
journey  at  a  somewhat  more  gentle  gait,  and,  just 
after  remounting  from  the  ferry,  ran  over  some 
particularly  dry  and  stiff  Thessalian  thistles,  reduc- 
ing about  half  of  our  tires  to  the  condition  of  sieves 
in  a  few  seconds.  A  long  and  pensive  walk  into 
Larisa  was  the  penalty  imposed  on  three  of  the 
party ;  and  we  took  a  carriage  out  to  Tempe  the 
next  day. 

Sometimes  one  in  travelling  blunders  into  a  good 
thing.  Before  the  journey  just  mentioned  I  had 
several  times  passed  Pharsala  with  just  pause 
enough  to  take  in  the  probable  topography  of  the 
great  battle  between  Caesar  and  Pompey,  and  once 
only  had  I  taken  a  rather  hasty  view  of  the  walls  of 
the  acropolis.  But  this  time,  by  the  chance  of  two 
of  our  party  lagging  behind  on  the  descent  from 
Domoko,  we  missed  a  train  that  we  might  have 
taken  to  carry  us  a  long  way  on  toward  Kalabaka. 
When  I  realized  that  we  were  compelled  to  pass 
the  night  at  Pharsala,  I  expected  to  "  pay  of  my 
person,"  inasmuch  as  we  had  no  guest  friend  to  fall 
back  upon.  What  was  my  surprise  to  find  a  per- 
fectly clean  hotel  opened  only  fourteen  months  be- 
fore, bearing  the  name  of  the  patriot  poet,  Rhegas 
Pheraeos.    We  were  in  luck. 

102 


THESSALY 


But  greater  luck  it  was  that  we  had  a  half-day  to 
explore  carefully  the  walls  of  the  acropolis.  Some 
parts  of  these  are  seen  to  be  as  old  as  those  of  My- 
cenae. Some  think  that  here  was  the  home  of 
Achilles.  If  this  is  so,  he  had  a  citadel  that  might 
vie  with  that  of  his  chief.  In  the  midst  of  our 
study  of  walls  we  were  from  time  to  time  impelled 
to  look  up  to  majestic  Olympus,  and  also  to  look 
into  the  deep  cut  between  it  and  Ossa,  the  Vale  of 
Tempe,  through  which  Pompey,  up  to  that  time  so 
fortunate,  but  then  a  broken  man,  fled  precipitate 
to  his  doom. 


103 


AN  ASCENT  OF  THE  HIGHEST 
MOUNTAIN  IN  GREECE 


PROBABLY  if  the  question  which  is  the  high- 
est mountain  in  Greece  were  proposed  to  a  lot 
of  candidates  for  admission  to  college,  whose  equip- 
ment in  Greek  geography  is  better  than  it  is  likely 
to  be  at  any  other  time,  the  majority  of  the  suffrages 
would  go  to  either  Olympus  or  Parnassus.  But 
Olympus,  with  all  its  Greek  associations,  is,  alas ! 
a  mountain  in  Turkey;  and  as  for  Parnassus,  it  is 
overtopped  by  nearly  two  hundred  feet  by  a  moun- 
tain to  the  west  of  it.  This  mountain,  called  Kiona, 
a  part  of  the  group  known  in  antiquity  under  the 
name  of  Korax,  "  Crow  Mountain,"  has  the  honor 
of  being  the  highest  mountain  in  the  Kingdom  of 
Greece.  Parnassus,  to  be  sure,  by  the  greatness  of 
its  fame  more  than  overcomes  the  lacking  two  hun- 
dred feet,  just  as  Erymanthus,  on  account  largely  of 
its  famous  boar,  is  of  more  importance  than  its 
higher  neighbor  to  the  east,  Aroania.  But  there 
are  always  a  few  spirits  who  wish  to  scale  the  high- 
est heights. 

The  American  School  at  Athens  has,  in  the  vari- 
ous persons  representing  it,  scaled  most  of  the  moun- 
tains of  Greece;  but  not  until  1898  had  it  scaled 

104 


AN  ASCENT  OF  THE  HIGHEST  MOUNTAIN 

the  highest.  We  had  hoped  to  do  it  with  a  consider- 
able force  ;  but  late  in  June  the  men  get  scattered. 
There  remained  but  four  of  us  together  at  the  close 
of  the  campaign  in  Corinth.  When  I  told  the 
Government  Ephor,  attendant  upon  our  work,  that 
we  proposed  to  shake  off  the  dust  of  our  excava- 
tions by  climbing  Kiona,  he  developed  a  sudden  in- 
terest in  my  welfare,  and  begged  me  not  to  venture 
it,  or  at  least  to  take  along  a  posse  of  soldiers. 
When  I  said  that  I  had  climbed  most  of  the  moun- 
tains of  Greece  without  harm  or  fear,  he  said  that 
this  particular  part  of  Greece,  ^Etolia,  and  at  this 
particular  time,  was  dangerous.  The  men  of  that 
section  were,  he  said,  particularly  bad  men.  I  had 
so  often  heard  men  of  other  villages  and  sections 
called  in  the  lump  bad  men,  when  they  in  reality 
proved  no  worse  than  those  who  gave  them  that 
bad  name,  that  I  was  not  shaken  until  our  overseer 
also,  an  intelligent  man,  begged  me  not  to  go.  He 
said  that  the  shepherds  of  Kiona  were  a  bad  lot  and 
known  as  such  all  over  Greece.  I  did  not  so  much 
mind  taking  my  own  life  in  my  hand,  but  felt  some 
scruple  about  hazarding  that  of  my  fourteen-year- 
old  boy,  whose  party  it  really  was.  So  when  we 
awoke  at  midnight  at  New  Corinth  to  find  that  the 
boat  which  was  to  take  us  to  Itea  had,  after  the 
manner  of  Greek  boats,  gone  through  the  canal 
without  turning  toward  Corinth  at  all,  I  proposed 
that,  taking  this  as  a  sort  of  "judgment  of  God/' 

105 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

we  should  return  to  Athens.  But  others  of  the 
party  said  that  they  felt  ashamed  to  give  up  an  en- 
terprise that  had  been  so  much  talked  about.  So, 
considering  ourselves  a  sort  of  society  with  an  ob- 
ject, we  did  not  dissolve.  We  had  lost  one  day ; 
but,  taking  the  west-bound  train  to  iEgion,  which 
we  reached  at  two  o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  with  a 
delay  of  only  fifteen  minutes  we  were  aboard  a  sail- 
boat with  a  stern  wind  driving  us  toward  Itea,  which 
the  boatmen  promised  to  reach  in  three  hours.  But 
promises  based  upon  wind  are  rarely  kept.  We 
were,  it  is  true,  nearly  at  the  mouth  of  the  Bay  of 
Itea,  perhaps  four-fifths  of  the  way,  at  the  end  of 
three  hours.  But  then  the  wind  fell,  and  much 
rowing  followed,  at  which  we  all  took  a  hand.  And 
it  was  nearly  eleven  o'clock  when  we  reached  Itea. 

We  had  hoped  to  reach  Amphissa,  seven  miles 
from  Itea,  and  then  make  our  arrangements  for 
climbing  the  mountain  before  going  to  sleep.  But 
now  all  we  could  do  was  to  avoid  sleeping  at  Itea, 
which  we  did  by  walking  about  half  a  mile,  and  as- 
cending a  little  knoll  where  we  spread  our  blankets 
and  slept  under  the  open  sky.  It  was  not  hard  to 
get  up  at  four  o'clock  the  next  morning  and  reach 
Amphissa  shortly  after  six.  By  the  time  we  had  made 
a  scanty  breakfast  horses  were  engaged  for  two  days  ; 
and  while  they  were  being  made  ready  we  had  an 
hour  to  devote  to  the  remains  of  ancient  Am- 
phissa, on  which  Philip's  heavy  hand  fell  as  a  pre- 

106 


AN  ASCENT  OF  THE  HIGHEST  MOUNTAIN 

liminary  to  the  battle  of  Chaeronea.  There  is  one 
gate  here  that  is  one  of  the  finest  specimens  of 
Greek  fortification  extant,  the  sight  of  which  made 
me  realize  what  an  oversight  I  had  been  guilty  of 
eight  years  ago,  when  I  passed  by  this  acropolis  as  a 
mediaeval  affair. 

Nobody  in  this  town  of  over  five  thousand  in- 
habitants appeared  to  have  the  local  knowledge 
that  fitted  him  to  be  our  guide ;  and  so  we  set  out 
with  the  understanding  that  at  a  monastery  three 
hours  up  we  should  find  such  a  man.  When  we 
reached  the  monastery  it  was  high  noon,  and  hot, 
as  became  the  fifteenth  of  June.  The  solitary 
monk,  Chrysanthos  Liaskos,  upbraided  us  for  not 
telling  him  that  we  were  coming,  that  he  might 
have  killed  for  us  a  lamb,  or  at  least  some  chickens. 
But  how  little  we  knew  just  when  we  were  coming  ! 
Such  as  he  had  he  gave  us,  and  refused  payment. 

The  old  wall  paintings  in  his  chapel,  some  of 
them  four  or  five  hundred  years  old,  were  very  fine, 
but  were  now  rapidly  going  to  ruin  with  the  crum- 
bling walls.  His  face  lighted  up  as  he  told  us  of 
miracles  performed  in  this  chapel,  not  hundreds  of 
years  ago,  but  last  year  and  under  his  own  eyes. 
He  was  a  very  wide-awake  man,  and  appeared  to 
be  convinced  of  the  truth  of  his  own  story. 

The  best  thing  he  did  for  us  was  to  get  from 
the  neighboring  village,  Sigritza,  a  very  competent 
guide.    When  we  got  off  at  half-past  two,  the 

107 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

horses,  which  went  only  about  two  hours  farther, 
were  serviceable  mainly  in  carrying  our  packs. 
After  that  our  guide  led  us  over  difficult  foot-paths 
which  climbed  along  the  edges  of  precipices  and  up 
heights  only  to  descend  again.  We  proceeded  more 
rapidly  now  that  we  had  got  rid  of  our  slow-paced 
horses,  which  were  to  return  to  the  monastery  and 
come  to  meet  us  the  next  morning.  At  nightfall 
we  came  to  a  hut  at  the  foot  of  the  main  peak, 
which  required  an  hour  and  a  half  of  climbing  in 
the  morning.  We  received  the  warmest  welcome 
from  shepherds  who  were  friends  and  relations  of 
our  guide.  They  did  not  seem  at  all  like  the  dread- 
ful men  of  whom  we  had  been  forewarned.  They 
made  a  most  savory  brew  of  half  a  kid — but  the 
milk!  Only  from  such  pastures  can  such  milk 
come.  We  all  regretted  engagements  that  pre- 
vented our  staying  a  week,  that  we  might  do  justice 
to  this  mountain  dairy. 

It  was  half-past  ten  before  we  could  go  to  rest. 
Then  the  shepherds  took  us  to  a  cave  where  they 
kept  their  cheeses,  which  gave  just  room  enough  to 
pack  us  in.  They  then  closed  the  door  with  boughs 
and  a  big  stone  to  keep  out  the  cold  night  wind 
and  the  dogs.  We  had  just  time  to  note  how 
much  our  lodging  seemed  like  the  cave  of  Poly- 
phemos  in  the  Odyssey,  and  get  a  good  whiff  of 
the  cheese,  when,  with  apparently  no  interval  at  all, 
we  heard  our  guide  calling  out  that  it  was  time  to 

108 


AN  ASCENT  OF  THE  HIGHEST  MOUNTAIN 

get  up  and  be  off.  Where  the  heart  of  that  night 
went  to  I  never  knew. 

When,  at  four  o'clock,  we  had  finished  our  toil, 
we  got  a  great  reward.  The  view  was  the  finest 
that  I  had  had  in  Greece.  Both  the  Corinthian 
Gulf  and  Thermopylae  seemed  to  lie  at  our  feet. 
The  sun  soon  rose  in  line  with  the  strait  between 
Euboea  and  Thessaly,  making  that  strait,  with 
Skopelos  and  Skiathos  blocking  its  exit,  a  sea  of 
fire.  To  the  south  was  the  great  trio  of  Arcadian 
mountains ;  to  the  northeast,  closing  a  long  line  of 
mountains  beginning  with  Pelion,  was  the  majestic 
Olympus ;  to  the  northwest  stood  Tymphrestos,  in 
lonely  dignity ;  while  to  the  west,  peak  upon  peak 
and  chain  upon  chain  of  iEtolia  made  a  most  be- 
wildering impression.  On  the  whole  it  was  a  pano- 
rama that  can  never  fade  from  the  mind's  eye. 
Two  years  earlier,  in  climbing  Parnassus,  I  had  been 
defrauded  by  clouds  of  all  that  was  best  in  this 
view,  viz.,  that  to  the  north  and  east. 

When  we  got  back  to  the  shepherds'  quarters 
and  began  our  farther  descent  at  seven  o'clock,  I 
gave  the  head  man  two  five-drachma  pieces,  as  a 
slight  reward  for  what  they  had  done  for  us.  He 
seemed  perplexed,  and  at  last  gave  me  back  one  of 
the  pieces,  and  asked  me  if  I  could  change  it,  as  I 
had  given  him  too  much.  You  may  believe  that  I 
didn't  do  it.  And  I  couldn't  help  smiling  to  think 
how  carefully  I  had  hidden  away  my  watch  in  my 

109 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


trousers  pocket,  for  fear  that  the  gold  chain  might 
tempt  these  bad  men.  Of  all  the  gentle  shepherds 
whom  I  have  met  on  Greek  mountains,  these  were 
the  gentlest  and  best. 

From  the  glorious  mountain  air  and  cold  water, 
trickling  down  over  precipices  a  thousand  feet  high, 
we  came  at  evening  again  to  Amphissa,  with  its 
stifling  air  and  scanty  water-supply,  and,  worst  of 
all,  with  its  one  hotel,  which  has  not  improved  since 
1890.  It  is  a  fact  that  there  was  only  one  wash- 
basin in  the  house,  and  it  was  very  hard  to  get  a 
turn  at  it.  Our  sufferings  in  the  night  were  dread- 
ful ;  and  when  in  the  morning  the  landlord  tried  to 
persuade  us  that  they  were  caused  by  mosquitoes, 
the  meekest  man  in  our  party  got  angry  almost  to 
the  point  of  profanity,  and  pointed  out  blood-stains 
on  the  sheets  that  were  evidently  not  those  of  mos- 
quitoes. And  yet  this  landlord  tried  to  do  well  by 
us,  giving  us  four  of  his  six  beds,  while  well-dressed 
Greeks  slept  on  his  dining-tables.  But  stop  !  Per- 
haps they  knew  better  than  we  what  they  were  about. 
If  one  were  shut  up  to  a  choice  between  Itea  and 
Amphissa  for  a  night's  lodging,  it  would  be  better 
to  take  to  the  woods,  especially  in  summer.  And 
during  that  long  summer  night  of  torture  we  re- 
gretted that  we  were  not  lying  again  in  the  open 
field  on  our  blankets. 

But  regrets  are  out  of  place,  and  nothing  but  the 
pleasure  remains  when  one  thinks  of  the  glories  of 
Kiona. 

no 


A  JOURNEY  FROM  ATHENS  TO 
ERETRIA 


MOST  hand-books  of  travel  in  Greece,  begin- 
ning with  the  invaluable  Baedeker,  impress 
it  upon  their  readers  that  there  are  no  long  distances 
in  Greece.  Even  without  the  help  of  railroads, 
which,  of  course,  as  far  as  they  extend,  have  annihi- 
lated the  barriers  between  the  old  "  jarring  states," 
one  finds  the  historic  places,  like  Corinth,  Delphi, 
Chaeronea,  Thebes,  and  many  others  lying  so  near 
one  another  that,  after  lodging  in  one  of  them,  one 
can  always  count  on  spending  the  next  night  at 
another.  One  loses  no  time.  On  the  map,  accord- 
ing to  which  one  might  lay  out  a  scheme  of  travel, 
Athens  and  Eretria  lie  very  near  together.  The 
overland  route  to  Oropos,  with  a  short  sail  across 
the  Euboean  Gulf,  can  be  compassed  in  any  summers 
day.  But  the  surest  and  most  convenient  way  is  sup- 
posed to  be  to  take  the  steamer  at  Piraeus  in  the 
early  evening,  and  wake  at  Chalkis  the  next  morn- 
ing, and  take  a  ride  of  three  hours  to  Eretria  in 
the  morning  air.  But  this  simple  and  easy  scheme 
sometimes  fails  in  practice,  as  my  experience  has 
shown. 

On  Wednesday,  February  18,  1891,  three  of  us 

in 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

started  out  from  Piraeus  at  evening  to  re-enforce 
one  student  of  the  American  School  who,  in  very 
bad  weather,  had  been  carrying  on  excavations  be- 
gun several  weeks  before.  We  had  deferred  sailing 
for  three  days  on  account  of  the  weather.  As  we 
set  out  it  was  a  grief  to  us  that  we  must  sail  past 
Sunion,  Marathon,  and  Rhamnus  before  daybreak. 
We  wished  to  supplement  previous  acquaintance 
with  those  places  by  a  view  from  the  sea.  The 
night  wore  away  with  considerable  tossing,  and  in 
order  to  get  a  little  view  of  the  narrowing  Euripos 
at  Chalkis  I  arose  at  half-past  six.  Seeing  that  we 
were  near  land  on  the  left,  I  asked  a  sailor  what 
land  it  was,  and  got  for  an  answer  something 
that  sounded  like  "  Macaroni."  Not  remembering 
any  such  land  in  the  neighborhood  of  Chalkis,  I 
cleared  my  eyes,  looked  about  me,  and  became 
sharply  interrogative.  Now  I  elicited  the  well- 
known  name  "  Sunion."  This  was  astounding. 
Leaning  far  out  over  the  railing  I  saw  the  columns 
crowning  the  "  steep."  Ah  !  good  fortune  was  go- 
ing to  allow  us  to  see  Marathon  by  broad  daylight. 

It  did  not  take  long  to  see  that  we  were  in  a 
boisterous  sea.  My  various  Atlantic  experiences 
furnished  no  parallel  to  it.  Not  only  were  the  bil- 
lows high,  but  the  fierce  northeast  wind,  mingled 
with  sleet,  seemed  to  take  up  the  tops  of  them  and 
carry  them  up  into  the  sky.  It  required  two  hours 
more  for  us  to  round  the  point  of  Sunion.    It  was 

112 


A  JOURNEY  FROM  ATHENS  TO  ERETRIA 


a  great  effort  for  the  good  ship  Peneios,  and  when 
that  was  accomplished  we  seemed  to  come  to 
nothing  better,  and  we  were  soon  aware  of  the  de- 
termination of  our  level-headed  captain  to  put  into 
the  harbor  of  Laurion  from  stress  of  weather. 

All  that  day  and  the  next  day  we  lay  in  that  har- 
bor, if  it  can  be  called  lying  to  roll  about  as  we  did. 
The  long  island,  Makronisi,  called  in  antiquity 
Helene,  almost  makes  Laurion  a  land-locked  har- 
bor. But  between  this  island  and  the  mainland  the 
northeast  wind  came  tearing  through  with  unabated 
fury  for  forty-eight  hours.  The  projection  of  the 
mainland  to  the  north  of  the  harbor  being  quite 
low,  we  were  as  poorly  protected  as  it  was  possible 
to  be  in  that  harbor.  Several  of  the  vessels  which 
had  taken  refuge  there  appeared  to  be  having  a 
rougher  time  than  the  Peneios.  Our  captain  looked 
on  with  some  pride  when  an  English  steamer 
dragged  her  anchor  nearly  across  the  whole  width 
of  the  harbor.  During  the  second  night  we  had 
some  fears  of  an  Apia  disaster.  No  boats  went  to 
or  from  the  land,  and  so  we  lay  the  greater  part  of 
two  days,  unable  to  telegraph  to  our  friends  in  Athens, 
as  much  shut  off  from  the  world  as  if  we  were  on  an 
ocean  voyage.  Yet  nobody  thought  of  wishing  to 
see  the  captain  change  his  mind  and  sail  on.  At 
last,  on  Saturday  morning,  at  about  two  o'clock,  we 
steamed  out,  and  were  as  badly  shaken  at  the  start  as 
one  often  finds  it  his  lot  to  be.    One  lesson  was  most 

113 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

thoroughly  impressed  upon  us,  that  there  may  have 
been  good  cause  in  antiquity  for  Athenian  fleets 
shunning  the  winter  trip  northward,  and  for  Philip's 
being  allowed  free  hand  to  accomplish  his  under- 
takings Thraceward  at  that  season  of  the  year. 

Little  recked  we  of  Marathon,  or  Rhamnus,  or 
Oropos  in  the  blinding  storm  in  which  we  at  last 
reached  Chalkis,  and  were  rowed  ashore  in  blinding 
snow  and  splashing  water  from  the  oars.  Photo- 
graphic apparatus  was  in  special  danger. 

Once  landed  we  seemed  near  Eretria,  but  here 
our  vicissitudes  thickened.  Between  us  and  Basiliko, 
the  half-way  halting-place  on  the  road  to  Eretria, 
was  one  of  the  numerous  Potamos  of  Greece,  which 
was  taking  this  opportunity  to  justify  its  name,  to 
make  up  for  being  nothing  but  a  dry  bed  nine 
months  in  the  year.  All  coach-drivers  but  one  said 
that  the  Potamo  would  be  as  far  as  we  could  go 
toward  Eretria  that  day.  But  this  one  talked  so 
confidently  of  being  able  to  find  horses  for  us  at  the 
Potamo  that  we  entrusted  ourselves  to  his  care,  and 
started  out  in  the  rain. 

The  course  lay  through  the  famous  Lelantine 
Plain,  which,  in  spite  of  the  rain,  was  seen  to  be  a 
paradise.  Such  vines  and  fig-trees  and,  farther  on, 
such  grain-fields  !  I  had  not  seen  its  like  in  Greece. 
It  is  no  wonder  that  it  wras  a  bone  of  contention 
almost  before  the  dawn  of  history.  It  is  something 
of  a  testimonial  to  the  power  and  ambition  of  Eretria 

114 


A  JOURNEY  FROM  ATHENS  TO  ERETRIA 

that  it  reached  so  far  out  from  its  own  fertile  plain 
to  grasp  at  what  geographically  belonged  to  Chalkis. 

Our  driver  soon  made  a  halt,  and  informed  us  that 
we  were  at  the  end  of  our  stipulated  drive.  There 
were  no  signs  of  any  river  or  any  horses.  He  said 
the  river  was  a  quarter  of  a  mile  farther  on,  and  that 
the  horses  were  not  his  lookout.  On  being  told 
either  to  find  horses  or  drive  back  to  Chalkis,  he 
became  surly,  and  demanded,  besides  the  liberal 
sum  of  twenty  drachmas  which  we  had  agreed  to 
pay  at  this  point,  twenty  drachmas  more  for  driving 
us  back.  We  told  him  that  we  should  pay  nothing 
at  all  except  on  a  hearing  before  the  demarch  of 
Chalkis.  He  at  last  drove  slowly  back,  going 
through  the  form  of  inquiring  at  several  houses  for 
horses,  but  getting  none. 

Arrived  at  Chalkis,  we  all  went  to  the  demarche 
office,  and,  shivering  over  a  pan  of  coals,  discussed 
the  case.  Under  the  demarches  pacific  influence,  we 
arranged  to  have  the  same  man  drive  us  out  again  the 
next  day,  paying  a  total  of  thirty  drachmas,  and  in 
the  meantime  to  telegraph  to  the  demarch  of  Eretria 
to  send  us  horses  to  meet  us  at  the  river. 

The  next  day  was  no  better  than  the  preceding, 
and  we  postponed  starting  for  several  hours,  in  hopes 
of  a  cessation  of  the  rain.  When  at  last  we  reached 
the  river,  and  looked  across  the  arches  of  the  bridge 
then  lying  several  years  unfinished,  though  the  rest 
of  the  road  was  ready  for  use,  we  were  unable  to  get 

ii5 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

any  response  to  our  shouts.  At  last  somebody  told 
us  that  a  man  from  Eretria  had  got  tired  of  shout- 
ing for  us  an  hour  before,  and  had  returned  the 
way  he  came.  Here  was  an  emergency.  We  must 
go  forward.  After  much  beating  about  the  neigh- 
borhood, one  little  unpromising-looking  horse  was 
found.  By  making  trips  enough  we  could  by  means 
of  this  weak  creature  get  over  to  Basiliko,  and  then 
perhaps  still  get  on  to  Eretria.  By  the  aid  of  a  long 
rope,  our  effects  were  soon  made  fast  to  the  many- 
horned  Greek  saddle,  and  we  started  to  make  the 
quarter-mile  distance  to  a  ford  a  little  below  the 
bridge.  Going  along  the  top  of  one  of  the  dikes 
thrown  up  to  facilitate  watering  of  the  vineyards, 
our  horse  slipped  and  came  down  the  bank  into  a 
foot  of  Lelantine  mud.  Our  effects  scattered  about 
under  him  prevented  his  absolute  disappearance. 
But  this  was  bad  for  the  effects.  Some  of  the  cargo 
was  at  last  righted,  and  the  horse  ungently  pulled  by 
application  of  force  at  both  ends  into  a  standing 
position,  and  by  some  carrying  of  bags  and  bundles 
we  reached  the  river-bank.  The  stalwart  bov  who 
accompanied  the  horse  ventured  into  the  water  to 
test  its  depth.  It  was  clear  that  that  weak  horse 
could  not  keep  his  footing  there. 

Our  stalwart  boy  was  equal  to  the  emergency. 
Taking  us  one  by  one  on  his  back  he  bore  us  over, 
and  then  the  parcels,  spending  nearly  an  hour  in  the 
operation.    The  sight  of  a  bearded  gentleman  being 

116 


A  JOURNEY  FROM  ATHENS  TO  ERETRIA 


carried  pickapack  across  a  rushing  river  by  a  boy 
whose  footing  could  not  be  very  secure  on  the  un- 
even river-bed,  and  who  could  not  quite  keep  the 
boots  of  his  rider  out  of  the  water,  is  a  very  ridicu- 
lous one  to  a  bystander;  but  as  each  one's  turn 
came  it  became  a  serious  event  to  him. 

When  we  were  all  well  over,  we  noticed  that  the 
faithful  horse  had  followed  his  master,  and  got 
across  also.  By  his  help  we  easily  made  the  half 
mile  to  Basiliko,  where  our  man  from  Eretria  was 
still  waiting  for  us  ;  and  that  night  we  spent  at 
Eretria,  ready  to  inaugurate  what  proved  to  be 
most  interesting  and  successful  excavations  on  the 
site  of  that  city  on  which  the  storm  of  Persian 
vengeance  fell  before  it  was  scattered  at  Marathon. 

We  had  a  most  unusual  March.  At  one  time 
snow  lay  on  the  ground  a  foot  deep  for  three  days. 
But  we  excavated  the  greater  part  of  the  ancient 
theatre  and  many  interesting  graves,  besides  mapping 
out  the  walls  of  the  city.  In  subsequent  years  we 
took  up  the  work  again,  and  uncovered  the  old 
gymnasium  and  a  temple  of  Dionysos  near  the 
theatre,  but  we  stopped  too  soon  ;  after  us  the 
Greeks  took  up  the  work,  and  achieved  results  that 
nearly  overshadowed  ours.  But  ours  will  ever  be  the 
service  of  having  uncovered  one  of  the  most  inter- 
esting theatres  of  Greece,  and  a  real  Greek  gym- 
nasium, which  is  a  rare  thing,  inasmuch  as  most 
gymnasia  which  are  preserved  to  us  are  Roman 

117 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


modifications  of  the  original  Greek  form.  More 
than  this,  we  forever  laid  the  idea,  up  to  that  time 
so  prevalent,  that  the  Eretria  which  was  destroyed  by 
the  Persians  was  several  miles  to  the  east  of  this. 
The  acropolis  walls  did  that ;  but  it  was  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Greek  excavator  to  uncover  the  temple 
of  Apollo,  with  its  archaic  gable  sculptures,  and  to 
find  a  considerable  quantity  of  large  vases  of  the 
sixth  century  before  Christ,  and  thus  to  corroborate 
the  testimony  of  the  walls.  There  was,  in  fact,  no 
other  such  place  for  a  commanding  acropolis  on  the 
whole  stretch  of  shore  as  on  the  hill  rising  above 
the  theatre.  Any  city  established  further  east  would 
have  deserved  the  name  of  "the  city  of  the  blind." 


118 


TAYGETOS  AND  KITHiERON 


IF  the  coupling  of  these  two  names  seems  forced, 
my  first  reason  for  it  is  the  purely  formal  one 
that  ten  days  after  being  on  the  summit  of  Tay- 
getos,  we  were  climbing  Kithaeron.  Greece  is  such 
a  small  country  that  to  traverse  it  from  end  to  end 
in  ten  days,  and  see  Sparta,  Argos,  and  Thebes, 
with  some  mountain  climbing  thrown  in,  is  nothing 
that  justifies  a  boastful  feeling;  but  when,  at  the 
end  of  such  a  journey,  one  reflects  upon  the  history 
and  mythology  which  is  attached  to  these  names, 
and  calls  up  the  scenes  enacted  on  the  plains  on 
which  he  looks  down  from  these  mountains,  he 
wonders  at  what  he  has  accomplished. 

The  mountains  of  Greece  have  many  and  great 
charms ;  and  they  have  this  pre-eminent  claim  on 
our  attention,  that  they  are  the  unchanged  witnesses 
of  the  past.  Poor  villages  occupy  the  Cadmeia 
and  the  site  of  Sparta ;  waves  of  immigration  have 
swept  over  Greece  to  such  an  extent  that  one  may 
be  in  honest  doubt  whether  the  people  who  walk 
these  dirty  streets  have  any  more  claim  to  be  the 
heirs  and  representatives  of  Leonidas  and  Epami- 
nondas,  whose  names  perchance  they  bear,  than  we 
have.    The  plains  and  rivers  remain,  except  that 

119 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

the  former  have  lost  their  trees  and  the  latter  their 
water.  But  Taygetos,  "  rock-ribbed  and  ancient  as 
the  sun,"  remains  as  it  was.  The  great  men  of 
Greece  knew  the  mountains,  and  were  known  of 
them.  Alkman  and  Pindar  had  held  converse  with 
Taygetos  and  Kithaeron,  which  now  remain  as  their 
sole  surviving  companions. 

Six  years  ago  I  had  approached  Sparta  from 
Messenia  through  Taygetos,  and  had  arrived  at 
evening  when  the  sun  sent  its  rays  almost  level 
through  the  orange-trees  loaded  with  fruit  and  red- 
olent with  blossoms.  I  feared  that  any  different 
approach  might  bring  a  sort  of  disappointment. 
But  when,  after  a  morning  at  Mantineia,  in  the  up- 
land plain  of  Arcadia,  we  gained  the  top  of  the  last 
height  of  the  pass,  and  saw  the  long  ridge  of  Tay- 
getos towering  before  us  with  the  sun  just  sinking 
behind  it,  we  stood  leaning  over  our  bicycles  and 
gave  way  to  silence  like  that  of  "  stout  Cortez  and 
his  men."  What  went  through  my  mind  could 
hardly  be  called  reflection,  unless  I  could  so  desig- 
nate an  acceptance  of  the  propriety  of  the  one 
epithet,  irepinrjiceTos,  which  Homer  chose  for  this 
mighty  mass,  whether  he  intended  it  in  the  sense 
of  "stretched  out"  or  "high  towering."  Night  was 
beginning  to  fall  before  we  could  break  the  spell 
and  move  down  into  the  valley  of  the  Eurotas,  and 
it  was  already  dark  when  we  crossed  the  bridge  of 
the  Eurotas  and  entered  Sparta.     The  object  of 

120 


Q 

Z 

ZD 

o 

a 

u 
< 

CQ 


O 
H 

a 
>- 
< 


< 
CO 


TAYGETOS  AND  KITH^ERON 

this  journey  was  not  so  much  to  visit  Sparta  as  to 
climb  Taygetos  ;  but,  while  waiting  until  the  after- 
noon of  the  next  day  for  another  contingent  of  the 
American  School  to  come  after  us  from  Tripolitza 
by  carriage,  we  used  the  time  to  visit  the  site  of 
Amyklae,  and  to  hunt  up  the  mound  from  which 
came  the  celebrated  Vaphio  cups,  the  finest  product 
of  the  goldsmith's  art  left  to  our  wondering  eyes  by 
the  Achaean  civilization  of  Greece. 

Taygetos  is  the  highest  mountain  in  Peloponne* 
sus,  outranking  Kyllene  by  somewhat  more  than  a 
hundred  feet,  and  falling  only  a  hundred  feet  short 
of  eight  thousand.  Since  Sparta  is  only  slightly 
above  the  sea-level,  the  task  before  us  was  arduous, 
and  when  our  forces  were  united,  we  decided  to 
make  a  part  of  the  ascent  before  evening.  An  ac- 
quaintance in  Sparta  gave  me  a  letter  of  introduc- 
tion to  a  leading  man  of  Anavryti,  a  village  three 
hours  up  the  mountain.  When  we  reached  his 
house  at  dusk,  in  the  middle  of  a  village  that  re- 
sounded with  flowing  streams,  this  letter  opened 
his  doors  and  his  heart.  It  opened  the  doors  so 
wide  that  the  neighbors  came  streaming  in  to  see 
us,  to  such  an  extent  that  he  was  at  last  glad  to 
avail  himself  of  the  help  of  a  gendarme  with  his 
whip  to  clear  out  the  younger  portion  of  his  self- 
invited  guests.  He  then  set  to  work,  in  the  man- 
ner of  Greek  hosts,  to  kill  us  with  kindness,  mak- 
ing us  eat  and  drink  for  about  two  hours.  After 

121 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

this  came  those  futile  attempts  to  sleep  which 
those  who  have  travelled  much  in  the  interior  of 
Greece  know  too  well  At  half-past  two  we  were 
only  too  ready  to  stop  the  fight  with  the  small 
enemy  and  address  ourselves  to  the  overcoming  of 
Taygetos.  For  the  first  two  hours  we  went  on  by 
the  light  of  a  lantern,  guided  by  the  son  of  our  host, 
over  a  difficult  path  which  gave  us  an  occasional 
fall.  After  that  came  the  gorgeous  sunrise  and  the 
increasing  reward  in  the  ever  more  extended  out- 
look, which  made  us  almost  forget  that  we  had  not 
slept.  It  was  owing,  however,  largely  to  this  lack 
of  sleep  that  one  of  our  number  gave  out  a  thou- 
sand feet  below  the  summit,  while  another  was  with 
some  difficulty  coached  over  the  last  five  hundred 
feet. 

When  we  were  at  last  on  the  summit  at  half-past 
ten,  the  reward  was  a  perfect  view — the  first  abso- 
lutely perfect  view  which  I  had  ever  had  out  of  many 
mountain  ascents  in  Greece.  We  had,  fortunately, 
taken  the  rare  moment  when,  after  four  days  of 
cloudy  and  rainy  weather,  the  sky  had  just  cleared, 
and  for  half  a  day  a  perfectly  cloudless  ether  was 
diffused  over  everything.  We  saw  the  valley  of  the 
Eurotas  winding  down  from  the  mountains  to  the 
sea,  where  it  empties  near  Helos,  the  "  marsh  town," 
which  is  said  to  have  given  its  name  to  the  whole 
remnant  of  the  Achaean  people,  who  were  reduced 
to  a  galling  bondage  under  the  Dorian  spearmen 

122 


TAYGETOS  AND  KITHyERON 

from  the  north.  Sparta  looked  so  near  that  wc 
were  almost  lured  into  the  attempt  to  throw  stones 
into  it.  Kythera  was  surprisingly  near,  and  even 
Crete— troubled  and  troublesome  Crete — seemed 
so  near  that  annexation  to  Greece  appeared  to  be  a 
most  obvious  lot  for  it.  The  southern  islands  of 
the  iEgean,  Melos  and  its  neighbors,  were  conspicu- 
ous to  the  east;  while  on  the  west  it  seemed  as  if  we 
could  almost  slide  down  into  the  Messenian  Gulf. 
But,  while  all  these  objects  caught  our  attention 
time  and  again,  it  was  still  to  the  north  that  our 
gaze  was  mainly  directed ;  for  there  lay  the  whole 
Peloponnesus,  with  its  peaks  and  ridges,  which 
compose  the  greater  part  of  it,  spread  out  before  us 
like  a  raised  map,  closed  in  on  the  north  by  the  big 
three,  Kyllene,  Aroania,  and  Erymanthos.  Com- 
pared with  these,  the  three  Attic  mountains  to  the 
extreme  left,  and  somewhat  distant,  looked  small, 
though  distinct.  It  was  a  place  and  a  scene  that  one 
must  needs  be  reluctant  to  leave.  Had  we  brought 
food  with  us  we  should  have  been  tempted  to  stay 
and  spend  the  night  in  the  substantial  "  tabernacle 
for  Elias,"  which  crowns  this  summit,  according  to 
the  usual  practice  in  Greece.  But  evening  brought 
us  to  Sparta,  a  good  many  stone's-throws  distant,  as 
we  felt  in  our  knees  and  in  our  appetites.  Two 
suggestions  force  themselves  upon  one  visiting  this 
region  :  the  first  is  that  the  Spartans  showed  won- 
derful energy  in  breaking  through  the  wall  of  Tay- 

123 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

getos,  and  conquering  their  Dorian  neighbors  in 
Messenia,  and  in  crushing  them  again  when  they 
made  a  desperate  attempt  to  throw  off  the  yoke  ; 
the  second  is  that  the  difference  between  these  two 
branches  of  Dorians  could  not  be  due  to  the  Mes- 
senians  having,  as  is  sometimes  alleged,  settled  in  a 
fatally  fertile  and  enervating  plain.  If  rich  fields 
could  enervate  a  people,  the  Spartans  surely  did  not 
lack  that  invitation,  for  the  valley  of  the  Eurotas 
must  have  been  in  antiquity,  as  now,  a  garden. 

But  what  an  unlovely  people  was  this  armed  camp, 
which  goes  under  the  name  of  Sparta !  We  will  not 
reproach  them  that  they  failed  to  produce  anything 
in  art  and  literature.  It  is  rather  their  meanness 
and  absolute  selfishness,  as  the  strongest  military 
power  in  Greece,  that  makes  them  odious.  For  a 
century,  from  the  Persian  war  to  Leuctra,  when- 
ever Sparta  moved  through  the  passes  to  the  north 
it  meant  woe  to  some  Greek  city  ;  and  when  there 
was  question  raised  at  home  over  the  unrighteous 
conduct  of  a  general  abroad,  the  outspoken  criteri- 
on was  :  "  Has  he  acted  for  the  interests  of  Sparta  ?  " 

The  last  great  injustice  was  the  seizing  and  hold- 
ing the  Cadmeia  in  time  of  peace.  It  is  this  that 
makes  lovers  of  fair  play  rejoice  at  the  crushing  re- 
turn blow  delivered  by  Epaminondas  and  his  The- 
bans  at  Leuctra,  and  take  satisfaction  in  his  passing 
down  the  Eurotas,  and  showing  the  women  of 
Sparta,  for  the  first  time,  "the  smoke  of  an  enemy's 

124 


TAYGETOS  AND  KITH^ERON 

camp."  And  now  by  a  historical  thread  we  are  led 
from  Taygetos  and  Sparta  over  to  Thebes  and 
Kithaeron. 

By  a  lucky  choice  we  approached  Thebes,  not  by 
any  of  the  usual  routes,  but  by  taking  the  train  from 
Athens  to  Megara,  walking  thence  across  to  the 
east  end  of  the  Corinthian  Gulf,  and  skirting  its 
shore  until  we  reached  iEgosthenae,  at  the  foot  of 
Kithaeron.  No  traveller  ought  to  neglect  this  re- 
gion. It  is  one  of  the  finest  shores  in  Greece  ;  so 
rugged  that  we  were  several  times  driven  inland  by 
a  promontory  rising  perpendicularly  from  the  sea, 
and  made  to  climb  more  than  a  thousand  feet  before 
we  could  continue  our  journey.  We  took  a  rec- 
ompense for  the  extra  toil  by  tipping  off  into  the 
sea  several  bowlders,  some  of  which,  striking  a  pro- 
jecting crag,  would  reach  the  water  with  the  effect 
of  a  bursting  shell.  This  whole  northeastern  arm 
of  the  Corinthian  Gulf  runs  in  between  Kithaeron 
on  the  north  and  Geraneia  on  the  south,  and  so 
gains  a  peculiar  seclusion. 

And  iEgosthenae  !  the  northwestern  frontier  town 
of  the  Megarid,  what  a  magnificent  ruin  !  The 
view  that  we  took  of  its  walls  and  towers  by  the 
full  moon  was  something  not  to  be  forgotten.  At 
iEgosthenae  we  were  on  the  route  so  often  travelled 
by  the  Spartans  when  they  went  over  into  Boeotia 
to  ' '  regulate"  its  affairs,  and  it  was  under  these 
walls  that  the  remnant  of  their  beaten  and  disheart- 

125 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

ened  army  first  stopped  to  take  breath  on  getting 
out  of  Boeotian  territory  after  Leuctra.  We  had 
planned  to  follow  this  entire  route,  but,  since  even 
this  involved  some  climbing,  we  agreed  to  take  a 
little  more  climbing  and  go  in  a  straight  line  for 
Plataea,  over  the  top  of  Kithaeron,  in  spite  of  the5 
fact  that  the  mountain  wore  a  cap  of  cloud.  So, 
having  taken  a  very  cold  sea-bath  and  another  good 
look  at  the  ruins  of  iEgosthense,  which  were  only  a 
little  less  imposing  by  day  than  by  moonlight,  we 
scaled  the  height  with  a  single  peasant  for  a  guide, 
and  his  mule  to  carry  our  packs.  After  many  a  look 
back  on  the  increasingly  beautiful  scene  behind  us, 
whenever  the  dark  fir-trees,  which  cover  the  slopes 
and  give  the  name  of  "fir  mountain  "  as  a  substitute 
for  the  old  name  Kithaeron,  allowed  it,  we  at  last 
entered  into  the  cloud  just  before  reaching  the  top. 
In  the  darkness  of  cloud  and  fir-trees  we  better 
felt  that  we  were  on  the  mountain  chosen  by  the 
Erinnyes  for  their  abode,  a  place  of  howlings,  the 
scene  of  woe  for  CEdipus,  Actaeon,  Pentheus,  and 
Agave.  Who  would  wish  for  sunlight  on  such  a 
spot  ?  It  would  have  been  as  inappropriate  as  a 
cloud  on  Taygetos.  While  we  were  musing  thus, 
suddenly  there  came  a  rift  in  the  cloud,  and  we  saw 
the  whole  plain  of  Boeotia  once,  twice,  three  times, 
and  the  spell  of  the  Erinnyes  was  broken.  We  went 
five  hundred  feet  further  down  on  the  north  side, 
where  we  seemed  to  have  left  behind  us  the  awful 

126 


TAYGETOS  AND  KITHJERON 


myths  and  to  have  come  down  into  the  realms  of 
history  ;  for  we  were  looking  down  into  Plataea, 
which  lay  at  our  feet.  One  of  the  brightest  pages 
in  Greek  history  is  the  unbroken  record  of  the  her- 
oism of  Plataea,  and  when  it  was  finally  crushed 
one  might  well  have  written  over  it,  "  dead  on  the 
field  of  honor."  Its  Athenian  leanings  were  abhor- 
rent to  Thebes,  which  always  desired  a  "  big  Boeo- 
tia."  But  no  one  could  have  done  a  better  turn  to 
Plataea  than  did  Thebes,  when  it  espoused  the  cause 
of  Persia  and  led  away  nearly  all  the  rest  of  Boeotia 
with  it.  At  the  close  of  "old  Plataea's  day"  the 
Panhellenic  spirit  of  Plataea  was  rewarded  by  the 
Greeks  in  their  giving  the  fine  old  heroic  city  the 
prize  of  valor,  and  declaring  its  soil  forever  sacred 
and  inviolate.  But  the  gods  gave  it  a  greater  prize, 
in  that  they  made  its  name  forever  associated  with 
the  battle  that  made  Greece  free. 

It  was  again  dark  when  we  entered  Thebes,  and 
again  we  seemed  to  have  left  the  realm  of  bright 
history  and  to  have  come  under  the  spell  of  the 
awful  myths  of  Cadmus's  line,  the  horrors  of  GEdi- 
pus  and  his  fratricidal  sons,  dark  horrors  relieved 
only  by  the  bright  form  of  Antigone. 


127 


STYX  AND  STYMPHALUS 


ARCADIA  is  a  name  to  conjure  with.  It 
"  throngs  the  pulses  with  the  fulness  of  the 
spring/'  It  had  been  my  lot  to  pass  twice  through 
Southern  Arcadia  from  east  to  west.  But  the  great 
plains  of  Mantineia  and  Megalopolis  lie  open  to 
the  sunlight,  and  have  nothing  weird  or  even  poet- 
ical about  them.  Even  Lykosoura  and  Bassae  do 
not  belong  to  the  Arcadia  that  furnished  the  stories 
about  singing  fishes  and  aquatic  mice.  We  must 
look  elsewhere  for  those  wonderful  fountains,  some 
of  which  cured  madness,  while  one  not  only  cured 
drunkenness,  but,  passing  beyond  the  "  touch  not, 
taste  not,  handle  not,"  made  even  the  smell  of  wine 
forever  odious.  It  is  recorded,  by  the  way,  that 
somebody  set  up  an  inscription  by  this  fountain, 
warning  the  traveller  against  drinking  of  it.  All 
these  features  belong  to  Northern  Arcadia. 

Mantineia  is  historically  the  most  interesting  city 
of  Arcadia ;  and  yet  I  had  twice  looked  from  its 
walls  through  those  deep  gorges  to  the  north,  know- 
ing that  just  through  the  first  one,  almost  in  sight, 
lay  old  Orchomenos,  and  longed  to  pass  through 
that  gateway,  but  had  been  prevented  by  other 
claims  upon  my  time.    But  in  the  summer  of  1895  I 

128 


STYX  AND  STYMPHALUS 


was  allowed  the  delight  of  seven  days  in  the  saddle 
with  two  pleasant  companions  in  these  uplands 
where  reality  is  more  inspiring  than  the  Louis 
Quatorze  fictions  that  have  been  thrown  around  the 
name  of  Arcadia. 

To  one  accustomed  to  arid  Attica  and  Argolis, 
the  abundance  of  water  and  trees  in  this  region  is 
most  striking.  The  three  great  northern  mountains 
look  bare  enough  at  their  tops  ;  but  they  reach  up 
and  draw  down  from  the  sky  that  store  of  moisture 
which  Pentelicus  and  Arachnaeon  are  impotent  to 
procure.  Everywhere  about  them  are  rippling 
streams  lined  with  plane-trees,  with  here  and  there  a 
magnificent  chestnut  grove,  and  mountains  covered 
with  forests  of  pine  and  fir.  Fields  of  maize  (with 
here  and  there  a  patch  of  hemp),  watered  by  thou- 
sands of  little  streams,  diverted  from  the  brooks, 
remind  us  of  home.  Around  Nonakris,  which  was 
almost  the  farthest  point  north  reached  in  our 
journey,  is  a  wild  tangle  of  vegetation  which  makes 
it  difficult  to  keep  the  paths,  which  follow  along 
the  streams,  from  becoming  overgrown  and  impas- 
sable. From  this  tangle  we  snatched  many  luscious 
blackberries  as  we  rode  past,  catching  some  briers 
with  the  berries. 

Nonakris  was  in  ruins  when  Pausanias  visited  it, 
but  past  it  flowed  the  river  Styx,  the  name  of  which 
is  probably  better  known  than  any  other  Arcadian 
name.    It  was  a  painful  and  somewhat  dangerous 

129 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

toil  of  about  three  hours  from  the  nearest  of  the 
half-dozen  villages  which  represent  the  ancient  No- 
nakris  to  the  foot  of  the  famous  waterfall  from 
which  the  river  comes  down.  I  use  the  word 
"toil"  rather  than  ascent,  for,  it  being  impossible 
to  force  our  way  up  the  bed  of  the  stream,  we  had  to 
climb  down  about  half  as  much  as  up;  in  fact,  it  was, 
taken  in  the  heat  of  noonday,  a  more  toilsome  climb 
than  the  ascent  of  Aroania,  which  we  had  made  on 
the  same  day  before  daybreak. 

When,  after  all,  we  stood  face  to  face  with  the 
fall  our  feeling  was  one  of  disappointment.  It  was 
nearly  the  middle  of  September,  and  though  Aroania, 
holding  snow  in  its  gorges  all  the  year  round,  may  be 
called  with  more  propriety  than  ^Etna  "the  nurse 
of  snow,"  there  was  little  water  falling,  and  we  saw 
none  of  the  rainbow  effects  mentioned  by  some 
travellers.  Still,  as  Herodotus  speaks  of  a  little 
water,  and  both  he  and  Homer  speak  of  this  as 
trickling,  we  ought  to  be  content.  After  climbing 
down  to  the  black  pool  at  the  foot  of  the  last  rock 
over  which  the  water  poured,  we  took  time  to  let 
the  whole  setting  of  the  Styx  make  its  impression, 
which  it  could  not  fail  to  do.  It  is  the  setting 
rather  than  the  fall  which  has  always  made  the  im- 
pression. Where  Aroania  is  broken  off  on  the  east 
end  so  abruptly  that  one  can  only  think  of  it  as  cut 
off  by  some  gigantic  cleaver,  down  over  this  front 
comes  the  Styx,  not  with  a  shoot,  but  hugging  the 

130 


STYX  AND  STYMPHALUS 

rock  and  deflected  several  times  along  its  face. 
Pausanias  says  that  the  precipice  is  the  highest  that 
he  ever  remembers  to  have  seen,  and  its  height  is 
recorded  as  upward  of  six  thousand  feet.  As  the 
mountain  throws  out  arms  to  the  right  and  left  of 
the  fall,  we  have  a  place  fitted  to  throw  a  potent 
spell  over  the  mind  on  a  moonlight  night  or  at 
morning  or  evening  twilight.  It  was  here  that  the 
exiled  Cleomenes,  the  gifted  but  mad  King  of 
Sparta,  made  the  chiefs  of  the  Arcadians  swear  to 
support  him  in  his  attempt  to  secure  a  return  to 
Sparta  by  force  of  arms.  He  doubtless  took  advan- 
tage of  the  knowledge  that  the  Arcadians  had  from 
remote  times  regarded  this  awful  place  as  imparting 
an  especial  sanctity  to  oaths,  and  that  here  particu- 
larly the  warrior's  oath  (sacramentum)  was  taken. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  the  lively  imagination  of  the 
Greek  transferred  the  earthly  Styx  to  Hades,  and 
represented  the  most  awful  and  binding  oath  of  the 
gods,  by  which  they  pledged  their  immortality,  as 
that  one  which  they  swore  by  this  hated  and  deadly 
water. 

There  is  now,  as  there  was  in  ancient  times,  a 
tradition  that  it  is  dangerous  to  drink  of  this  water ; 
but  so  great  was  our  heat  and  thirst  that,  regardless 
of  consequences,  wTe  drank  deep  at  the  Stygian  pool. 
On  returning  home,  after  an  interval  of  several 
days,  I  was  caught  by  a  lurking  fever  and  general 
derangement  of  the  system,  which  it  required  sev- 

131 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

eral  days  to  throw  off.  I  am  not  going  to  decide 
whether  this  is  an  example  of  the  slowness  and  sure- 
ness  of  the  gods  in  punishing  impiety,  whether  I 
carried  off  a  little  malaria  from  an  intervening  visit 
at  Stymphalus,  or  whether  it  was  simply  the  result 
of  drinking  too  much  cold  water  not  merely  from 
the  Styx,  but  from  many  others  of  the  countless 
springs  about  Aroania. 

Aroania,  from  which  the  Styx  falls,  although  7,725 
feet  high,  is  less  generally  known  than  its  great 
neighbors  east  and  west.  When  I  first  went  to 
Greece  I  had  forgotten  that  there  was  such  a  moun- 
tain. But  it  is  much  higher  than  Erymanthos,  and 
affords  a  better  view  than  Kyllene,  which  is  about 
seventy  feet  higher.  Pausanias,  who  was  no  moun- 
tain climber,  ascended  Aroania.  Perhaps  he  was 
possessed  by  the  idea  of  doing  justice  to  everything 
connected  with  so  holy  a  place.  Following  in 
his  footsteps,  we  walked  up  to  a  shepherd's  enclos- 
ure, at  an  altitude  of  5,000  feet,  accompanied  by 
the  owner  of  the  flocks,  who  was  also  later  our 
guide  to  the  Styx.  Here  we  spent  the  night  in  the 
open  air,  near  a  fire,  wrapped  in  rugs.  At  half-past 
two  we  set  out  by  the  light  of  an  old  moon  and 
reached  the  summit  at  half-past  four.  For  two 
hours  clouds  swept  past  us  with  fierce  velocity,  and 
it  was  bitter  cold  as  well  as  wet.  It  began  to  appear 
as  if  the  same  misfortune  was  upon  us  as  befell  us  a 
month  before,  when  we  had  climbed  Parnassus  to 

132 


STYX  AND  STYMPHALUS 


be  lost  in  a  cloud  whose  lifting  gave  us  only  here 
and  there  a  glimpse  of  the  world  below.  But  now 
at  last  we  did  get  the  whole  broad  view  from  Thes- 
saly  to  Taygetos.  The  grandest  feature  of  all  was 
Parnassus  and  the  still  higher  mountains  of  iEtolia  ; 
but  the  most  interesting  and  instructive  feature  was 
Peloponnesus,  stretched  out  before  us  like  a  raised 
map.  We  could  study  its  chains  and  ganglia  of 
mountains. 

Two  days  later  we  were  at  Lake  Stymphalus. 
We  hastened  to  bathe  in  it.  Had  we  plunged  in  we 
should  probably  have  achieved  distinction  as  the 
first  bathers  in  that  lake  ;  but  the  sight  of  a  half  a 
dozen  blood-suckers  at  our  feet  held  us  back,  and, 
bathing  from  the  lake  rather  than  in  it,  we  came 
away  not  much  cleaner  for  the  operation.  But  we 
secured  a  practical  insight  into  the  nature  of  this 
lake,  which  is  like  several  larger  and  smaller  Jakes 
in  Northeastern  Arcadia.  Strictly  speaking,  it  is 
no  lake  at  all,  but  a  mud-pond.  Probably  in  no 
place  is  the  water  more  than  four  or  five  feet  deep, 
and  had  we  dived  from  any  part  of  the  shore  our 
heads  would  still  be  sticking  in  the  mud. 

In  a  normal  condition  of  things  there  should  be 
here  neither  lake  nor  mud-pond,  but  only  a  plain 
with  a  river  running  through  it,  and  disappearing  in 
a  hole  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  at  the  southern 
end.  Mountains  are  so  thickly  strewn  in  Arcadia 
that  streams  cannot  get  around  them,  and  so  have 

i33 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

to  go  through  them.  In  this  case  the  water  was 
supposed  to  find  its  way  out  under  the  mountains 
to  a  point  somewhat  south  of  Argos,  where  it 
rushes  out  of  the  mountain  side  as  a  pure  and  full 
river,  under  the  name  of  Erasinos.  But  such  a 
hole,  called  a  katabothra,  was  always  likely  to  get 
clogged,  and,  as  a  stoppage  might  occur  at  a  dis- 
tance from  the  mouth,  it  might  be  very  difficult  to 
clear  it  out.  It  spite  of  great  care  this  katabothra 
was,  doubtless,  sometimes  stopped  in  ancient  times. 
The  horrible  Stymphalian  birds  which  Heracles 
killed  typify,  it  is  supposed,  the  pestilence  which 
arose  from  such  a  stoppage.  Such  gigantic  labors 
as  forcing  open  the  katabothra  are  quite  in  keeping 
with  the  character  of  Heracles's  other  labors,  which 
included  the  purging  of  the  stables  of  Augeas  and 
the  draining  of  the  marsh  of  Lerna,  typified  by  the 
killing  of  the  Lernaean  hydra.  That  birds  should 
here  be  chosen  to  represent  the  evil  seems  an  apt 
touch  of  local  coloring ;  for  several  times  in  our 
stay  around  this  lake  the  air  was  shaken  by  a  rus- 
tling of  wings,  and  flocks  of  birds  that  looked  like 
wild  ducks  settled  down  into  the  water  or  flew  up 
from  it. 

As  a  proof  that  the  water  of  the  lake  in  antiquity 
was  not  up  to  its  present  level,  we  saw  near  the 
waters  edge  deep  wheel  ruts  in  the  rock,  which 
would  now  be  deeply  covered  by  the  water  in  the 
spring  (for  besides  the  irregular  variation,  dependent 

i34 


STYX  AND  STYMPHALUS 


on  the  more  or  less  perfect  working  of  the  kata- 
bothra,  there  must  always  have  been  the  regular 
variations,  dependent  on  winter  rains  and  summer 
drouth).  Furthermore,  standing  on  the  imposing 
walls  of  the  acropolis  of  Stymphalus,  on  a  hill  which 
projects  from  a  mountain  out  into  the  marsh  on  its 
western  side,  one  sees  foundations  of  temples  and 
other  buildings  of  the  lower  town,  hardly  clear  from 
water  at  the  driest  season  of  the  year.  Archaeologi- 
cal excavations  here  would  probably  be  particularly 
rewarding ;  but  are  absolutely  impossible  until  the 
modern  arrangements  for  draining  the  lake,  begun 
some  years  ago,  are  carried  to  a  higher  stage  of 
perfection  than  they  have  reached  at  present. 

Of  course  there  is  no  better  drinking-water  in 
Greece  than  that  which  flows  into  Lake  Stympha- 
lus. It  flows  from  the  mountains  round  about. 
Kyllene  contributes  a  large  share.  It  is  only  when 
it  lies  in  the  basin  and  stagnates  there  that  it 
becomes  polluted.  In  Hadrian's  reign  an  aque- 
duct carried  from  this  source  a  copious  supply  of 
water  to  populous  Corinth,  furnishing  both  drink- 
ing-water about  as  good  as  that  of  Pirene  and  the 
great  amount  required  in  the  numerous  baths. 

Now  that  Athens  is  rapidly  growing,  its  authori- 
ties are  at  their  wits'  ends  to  find  a  proper  supply 
of  water  for  the  pressing  needs  of  so  large  a  city. 
All  sorts  of  temporary  expedients  have  been  re- 
sorted to  to  increase  the  regular  supply  from  Pen- 

i35 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

telicus.  But  none  of  them  are  adequate  ;  and  the 
minds  of  the  far-seeing  ones  contemplate  the  ne- 
cessity of  bringing  water  from  Stymphalus.  Cer- 
tainly if  Athens  is  to  grow  at  its  present  rate,  and 
become  a  city  with  a  population  of  two  hundred 
thousand  or  more,  something  as  radical  as  this  must 
be  adopted. 

The  operations  of  Lake  Pheneus  are  really  more 
interesting  and  important  than  those  of  Lake 
Stymphalus,  owing  to  its  greater  size.  It  has  been, 
as  is  seen  by  the  marks  on  the  surrounding  rocks, 
at  one  time  some  one  hundred  feet  higher  than  in 
1895,  when  it  was  a  modest  lake  of  about  three 
miles  in  diameter.  In  antiquity  Heracles  was  called 
in  even  here  to  make  a  long  canal,  traces  of  which 
have  been  noted  by  modern  travellers,  straight 
through  the  plain  to  the  katabothra  at  the  south- 
ern end.  This  canal  was  out  of  repair  even  in 
Pausanias's  time,  and  the  river  had  reverted  to  its 
original  tortuous  bed.  Here  also  the  stoppage  of 
the  katabothra  has  been  fruitful  of  mischief.  In 
ancient  times  the  strong  city  of  Pheneos  was  forced 
to  surrender  by  a  general  who  stopped  the  kata- 
bothra, imitating  the  tactics  by  which  Agesipolis 
took  Mantineia.  Once  also  in  modern  times  a  nat- 
ural stoppage  caused  a  general  desertion  of  the 
plain,  and  the  water  gradually  rose  until  it  began 
to  seem  as  if  it  would  ultimately  flow  over  the 
mountain-pass  to  the  south,  and  discharge  itself  into 

136 


STYX  AND  STYMPHALUS 

the  plain  of  Orchomenos,  which  already  has  its 
hands  full  with  its  own  katabothra.  But  at  the 
very  time  of  the  arrival  in  Greece  of  the  young 
King  Otto,  the  accumulated  water  forced  the  kata- 
bothra, and  laid  bare  a  tract  of  most  richly  fertil- 
ized land,  an  event  which  was  regarded  as  a  bless- 
ing bestowed  upon  the  advent  of  the  king.  At 
the  same  time  a  great  swelling  of  the  Ladon  and 
the  Alpheios,  resulting  in  an  overflow  of  Olympia, 
proved  conclusively,  what  the  ancients  appear  to  have 
known,  that  the  water  of  Pheneos  flowed  into  the 
Ladon.  Since  the  Alpheios  proper,  the  southern 
fork  of  the  river  to  which  the  Ladon  is  the  still 
greater  tributary,  disappears  twice  before  it  achieves 
an  uninterrupted  course,  it  is  little  wonder  that  the 
fancy  of  the  Greek  could  picture  it  as  reappearing, 
even  after  a  course  under  the  sea,  at  the  fountain  of 
Arethusa  in  Syracuse. 

At  the  time  of  our  visit  Lake  Pheneos  was  most 
impressive.  Five  hundred  feet  higher  than  Lake 
Stymphalus,  it  was  surrounded  by  grander  moun- 
tains, the  steep  slopes  of  which  were  thickly  wooded 
on  their  lower  parts.  It  had  as  fine  a  setting  as  a 
lake  could  have.  When  I  was  approaching  it  five 
years  later  from  the  south,  I  kept  saying  to  my 
companions,  "  Now  I  will  show  you  one  of  the 
finest  sights  in  Greece."  But  as  we  advanced  and 
more  and  more  of  the  plain  came  into  view,  I  be- 
gan to  wonder  what  had  become  of  the  lake.  It 

*37 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

soon  transpired  that  it  had  repeated  its  old  trick 
and  slipped  away  again,  leaving  some  fertile  terri- 
tory, but  a  larger  area  of  sand ;  and,  what  seemed 
sadder  than  all  else,  converting  a  beautiful  bit  of 
scenery  into  a  dry  valley,  not  altogether  unlovely  it 
must  be  confessed.  I  was,  however,  much  chagrined 
to  be  cheated  out  of  my  function  as  showman.  Thus 
it  will  ever  be  with  these  lakes.  When  the  water 
rises  so  high  as  to  have  weight  enough  to  force  out 
the  obstruction  which  first  produced  the  lake,  the 
lake  seeks  the  sea ;  and  the  process  of  stopping  and 
opening  will  be  repeated  to  the  end  of  time. 

In  that  part  of  Arcadia  traversed  by  us  there  are 
no  hotels  and  no  carriage-roads.  Most  of  the  nights 
we  slept  on  rugs  spread  on  the  floor  of  very  plain 
houses.  One  night  only  did  we  have  beds,  in  a  so- 
called  inn  at  Kalavryta,  our  farthest  point  to  the 
north.  These  beds — bad  success  to  them  ! — re- 
minded us  of  the  ancient  conundrum,  "  When  is 
a  bed  not  a  bed  ?  "  They  kept  the  promise  to  the 
ear  and  broke  it  to  the  heart.  We  were  more  con- 
tented with  the  frank  statement  of  the  demarch 
(mayor,  if  one  may  call  him  so)  of  a  little  village,  in 
whose  house  we  spent  our  first  night  out:  "You 
are  very  welcome  to  my  house,  but  you  will  have 
bugs."  The  prophecy  was  amply  fulfilled  before 
morning.  In  no  night  of  the  whole  journey  were 
we  spared  this  affliction.  But  the  exaltation  of 
spirit  in  such  a  country  is  great  enough  to  make 

138 


STYX  AND  STYMPHALUS 


one  speedily  forget  the  annoyance  to  the  flesh.  Of 
course,  a  good  deal  of  this  annoyance  might  have 
been  avoided  by  taking  along  our  own  beds,  which 
would  have  involved  only  the  paying  for  an  extra 
horse.    This  plan  I  have  subsequently  followed. 

There  was  a  sameness  in  our  meals.  So  soon  as 
we  arrived  at  our  night's  lodging  we  ordered  four 
chickens,  two  for  dinner  and  two  to  carry  along  the 
next  day  in  our  saddle-bags  for  luncheon.  This 
with  bread  and  unlimited  grapes,  without  money 
and  without  price,  provided  us  with  two  meals  a 
day,  and  in  Greece  one  never  thinks  of  taking  any- 
thing more  in  the  early  morning  than  a  little  coffee 
with  bread.  The  grape  season  is  the  favorable  time 
to  travel  in  Greece.  Grapes  are  even  more  than 
bread  the  staff  of  life  ;  they  assuage  thirst  as  well  as 
serve  for  food. 

Our  route  was  a  long  circuit  which  brought  us 
back  to  Argos  again  through  Mantineia,  Orcho- 
menos,  Kleitor,  Kalavryta,  Megaspeleon,  Styx, 
Pheneos,  Stymphalus,  Phlius,  Nemea.  It  may  be 
interesting  to  add  that  the  whole  outlay  was  less 
than  ten  dollars  apiece,  of  which  more  than  half 
went  to  the  payment  for  horses.  It  is  difficult  to 
procure  anywhere  so  much  pleasure  at  so  little  ex- 
pense. How  different  is  this  from  the  experience 
of  the  man  who  complained  that  he  had  spent  years 
in  wandering  about  Europe  paying  a  dollar  for 
every  fifty  cents'  worth  of  pleasure  ! 

i39 


AN  UNUSUAL  APPROACH  TO 
EPIDAUROS 


PERHAPS  the  best  way  to  study  thoroughly  a 
country,  as  well  as  to  enjoy  it,  is  to  do  what  we 
do  at  home,  namely,  to  wander  over  it  at  leisure, 
letting  impressions  settle  in  on  us  without  making 
efforts  to  gather  information.  Unfortunately,  we 
seldom  have  time  to  do  this  in  a  foreign  country. 
I  count  it,  therefore,  as  a  privilege  that  during  two 
successive  summers  a  residence,  once  on  the  island 
of  Kalauria,  now  called  Poros,  and  once  on  the 
mainland  opposite  to  it,  in  the  territory  of  Troezen, 
furnished  me  an  opportunity  to  become  acquainted 
in  this  delightful  way  with  a  most  interesting  part 
of  Greece.  Not  only  did  I  pay  frequent  visits  to 
the  temple  on  the  island,  where  Demosthenes  com- 
mitted suicide — a  temple  at  that  time  being  ex- 
cavated by  Swedish  archaeologists,  but  I  also  made 
several  excursions  to  Troezen,  Methana,  and  iEgina, 
and  once,  breaking  through  the  high  mountain 
which  opposite  Poros  approaches  the  sea,  I  worked 
my  way  over  it  across  the  eastern  prong  of  plane- 
tree-leaf-shaped  Peloponnesus  to  the  old  Dryopian 
town  of  Hermione,  which,  in  its  beautiful  situation 
at  the  innermost  recess  of  a  deep  bay,  rivals  Troezen. 

140 


AN  UNUSUAL  APPROACH  TO  EPIDAUROS 

For  several  weeks  during  one  of  these  summers 
Mr.  Kabbadias,  the  Greek  Ephor-General  of  An- 
tiquities, was  our  next  neighbor  ;  and  subsequently, 
when  he  was  excavating  at  Epidauros,  where  he 
worked  for  five  years  after  his  brilliant  success  on 
the  Athenian  acropolis,  an  invitation  from  him  was 
the  occasion  of  my  making  a  still  longer  excur- 
sion. My  companion  was  a  Greek  neighbor.  As 
it  was  summer,  we  made  an  early  start,  sailing  along 
two  hours  to  the  harbor  of  Troezen,  where  we  took 
horses  which  had  preceded  us.  At  five  o'clock  we 
were  in  the  saddle.  For  an  hour  or  more  we 
skirted  the  shore  as  far  as  the  nature  of  the  land  (if 
we  may  call  bare  rocks  land)  would  allow  it,  pass- 
ing in  the  rear  of  Methana,  that  jagged  sierra 
which  from  Athens  forms  an  impressive  back- 
ground for  iEgina,  and  is  itself  projected  against 
the  higher  mountains  of  the  mainland.  Then  com- 
ing to  a  point  where  these  mountains  fall  sheer  into 
the  sea  some  fifteen  hundred  feet,  we  were  obliged 
to  turn  inland.  The  path,  foreseeing  the  jumping- 
ofF  place,  took  the  turn  betimes  by  climbing  up 
with  many  a  zigzag  a  face  of  the  mountain  which 
was  not  quite  perpendicular.  After  a  long  pull 
we  passed  on  our  right  a  village  called  Lower 
Phanari,  which  looked  so  much  like  an  eyrie  that 
one  might  think  "  Lower  "  was  added  in  jest.  But 
when  with  still  more  toil  we  reached  another  village 
called  Upper  Phanari,  and  looked  down  upon  the 

141 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


other,  we  recognized  the  seriousness  of  the  distinc- 
tion. There  it  lay,  with  its  fifty-one  houses,  so  far 
below  us  that  it  seemed  almost  level  with  the  sea. 

Why  anybody  should  ever  choose  to  live  so  high 
up  on  the  rocks  as  Upper  Phanari  was  not  at  first 
apparent.  But  after  a  halt  here  for  luncheon 
(brought  with  us,  of  course,  for  no  traveller  counts 
on  living  on  such  a  region),  and  after  two  hours  of 
refreshing  sleep  on  wooden  benches,  we  moved 
downward  and  inland,  and  in  a  quarter  of  an  hour 
came  upon  one  of  those  little  plains  which  sup- 
ported so  many  villages  in  ancient  Greece.  In  this 
case  an  ancient  village,  the  name  of  which  we  may 
never  know,  and  which  occupied  the  site  of  Upper 
Phanari,  where  it  has  left  substantial  traces  of  itself 
in  the  shape  of  walls,  must  have  got  a  scanty  sup- 
port from  this  little  plain.  Both  ancients  and 
moderns,  rather  than  live  in  the  plain,  preferred 
to  live  on  the  rocks  above,  although  it  entailed 
carrying  the  produce  and  drinking  water  a  mile, 
that  they  might  live  in  sight  of  the  beloved  sea. 
Our  downward  turn  was  soon  exchanged  for 
another  upward  one,  our  course  being  all  the  time 
northward  and  parallel  to  the  shore.  Once  a 
great  gap  in  the  range  separating  us  from  the 
sea  revealed  not  only  the  sea,  but  the  whole  of 
Methana,  which,  with  all  its  height,  was  so  low  that 
we  looked  over  its  peaks  down  into  the  sea.  About 
four  o'clock,  refusing  a  turn  into  a  broad  mountain 

142 


AN  UNUSUAL  APPROACH  TO  EPIDAUROS 

valley  to  the  left,  we  turned  sharply  to  the  right 
and  broke  through  the  mountains  by  a  narrow 
gorge,  and  were  again  on  the  outside  with  the 
whole  Saronic  Gulf  before  us.  It  was  such  a  dis- 
play of  beauty  that  one  shrinks  from  enumerating 
its  details.  What  immediately  arrested  our  atten- 
tion was  that  which  lay  at  our  feet.  Here  the 
mountains  receded  a  little,  giving  place  to  a  paradise 
of  vines  and  trees,  which  made  a  marked  contrast 
to  the  brown  mountains  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
blue  sea  on  the  other.  The  boundary  lines  of  each 
color  were  very  sharp.  A  large  opening,  very  little 
of  which  we  could  see,  ran  back  into  the  mountain 
to  the  left  of  the  plain.  Through  this  opening  a 
stream  came  down,  flowing  even  in  the  summer,  a 
rare  thing  in  Eastern  Greece. 

This  plain  contained  the  ancient  town  of  Epi- 
dauros,  and  three  hours'  distant,  up  through  the 
opening  in  the  mountains,  lay  the  sanctuary  of 
iEsculapius,  called  to-day  the  Hieron  or  Holy 
Place,  which  gave  the  town  its  importance.  One 
travelling  from  Athens  to  Nauplia  by  sea  is  at- 
tracted by  this  single  opening  on  the  whole  eastern 
shore  of  Argolis.  But  much  as  one  would  like  to 
turn  in  here  and  explore  the  great  opening,  and  go 
this  way  up  to  the  "  holy  place,"  the  steamers  take 
him  along  past  it,  unless  he  perchance  gets  off  at 
iEgina,  and  trusts  himself  to  a  sail-boat  to  take  him 
across.    Travellers  generally  have  to  follow  the 

i43 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

beaten  track  ;  and  I  had  visited  the  Hieron  four 
times  by  the  longer  route  from  Nauplia  before  it 
befell  me  to  approach  it  by  this  road,  which  was 
trodden  by  the  greater  part  of  the  tens  of  thousands 
who  came  to  seek  salvation  from  ^Esculapius. 

We  now  wound  our  way  down  the  mountain 
side,  entering  the  village  of  Epidauros  at  sunset, 
along  with  the  troops  of  vintagers,  from  whose 
crates  we  took  grapes  to  our  hearts'  content.  As 
for  any  payment,  nobody  thought  of  that.  Now  I 
got  an  interesting  lesson  in  Greek  hospitality.  My 
companion  had  brought  a  letter  of  introduction  to 
a  man  in  this  village  whom  we  met  coming  in  from 
his  vineyard.  He  said  that  he  was  very  busy  dis- 
posing of  his  grapes,  and  could  hardly  be  at  his 
house  at  all  that  night.  But  he  called  one  of  his 
workmen  and  told  him  to  take  us  to  his  house  and 
see  that  we  had  the  best  room  in  it.  We  did  not 
see  him  again  until  the  next  morning,  when  we  met 
him  already  among  his  vines  at  four  o'clock,  three 
miles  up  the  valley  on  the  road  to  the  Hieron.  The 
pressure  of  New  England  haymaking  is  nothing 
compared  with  that  of  the  vintage  season  in  Greece. 

Nothing  could  exceed  the  cordiality  of  our  host 
in  these  two  encounters  by  evening  and  morning 
twilight.  His  hospitality  was  as  hearty  as  it  was 
a  matter  of  course.  Angels  could  have  done  no 
more.  It  was,  in  the  Homeric  phrase,  Soo-is  6\(yr)  re 
<f>l\ri  T6.    His  off-hand  hospitality  was  to  us  a  perfect 

144 


AN  UNUSUAL  APPROACH  TO  EPIDAUROS 

godsend.  We  were  lodged  in  the  best  house  in  the 
village,  and  made  as  free  and  easy  as  if  we  had  been 
in  an  inn.  Without  him  we  should  have  come  off 
short.  The  village  contained  only  about  thirty 
houses,  and  most  of  these  very  uninviting.  In  fact, 
a  stranger  would  hardly  seek  shelter  in  any  of  them 
except  under  stress  of  weather.  There  is  hardly  a 
more  neglected  corner  in  Greece  than  this  once  im- 
portant place,  the  mother  city  of  iEgina,  which  lies 
in  plain  sight  confronting  it,  two  hours'  sail  across 
the  bay.  Not  only  does  no  steamer  put  in  here, 
but  there  was  not  even  a  sail-boat  in  the  harbor 
while  we  were  there.  We  were  told  that  no  sail- 
boat was  owned  by  anybody  in  the  village,  an  un- 
heard-of thing  on  a  Greek  coast.  To  send  a  telegram 
or  to  get  a  physician  one  must  send  to  Piada,  called 
also  New  Epidauros,  an  hour  and  a  half  distant. 
A  mail  comes  twice  a  week  on  horseback  from 
Nauplia,  all  the  way  across  the  peninsula. 

In  this  neglected  but  most  picturesque  corner  re- 
main the  walls  of  a  stately  acropolis  on  a  rocky 
peninsula  with  a  harbor  on  each  side  of  it,  and  other 
remains  of  a  great  city  protruding  from  the  rich  soil 
where  this  peninsula  joins  the  mainland. 

But  while  the  city  has  perished,  the  Hieron  has, 
in  a  certain  sense,  come  to  life  again.  Here  an  area 
has  been  laid  bare  much  larger  than  that  excavated 
by  the  Germans  at  Olympia.  The  theatre,  the  best 
preserved  of  all  Greek  theatres,  was  never  entirely 

145 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

covered  up,  and  was  early  and  easily  cleared.  The 
project  of  having  a  grand  presentation  of  ancient 
dramas  here  has  often  been  broached  but  never  car- 
ried out,  on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  transporting 
and  feeding  the  spectators  necessary  to  the  success 
of  the  project,  to  say  nothing  of  lodging  them. 
The  acoustic  properties  of  this  theatre  are  well 
known.  One  standing  in  front  of  the  stage  makes 
himself  heard  without  effort  by  one  sitting  in  the 
top  row  of  seats. 

The  finest  building  in  the  precinct  was  the  so- 
called  Tholos,  a  round  building  as  highly  orna- 
mented as  the  Erechtheum  at  Athens,  and  boasting 
Polycleitus  as  its  architect.  The  temple  of  iEscu- 
lapius  was  almost  equally  brilliant,  but  these  two 
buildings  do  not  exist  except  to  the  archaeologist 
We  have  inscriptions  giving  most  elaborate  ac- 
counts of  the  construction  of  each  of  them  ;  but  of 
each  building  nothing  remains  except  their  founda- 
tions and  broken  fragments  of  their  brilliant  adorn- 
ment. Were  it  not  for  giving  this  description  of  a 
journey  the  appearance  of  a  guide-book,  I  might 
speak  of  the  Herculean  labors  of  Mr.  Kabbadias  in 
excavating  the  Stadion,  and  the  little  pleasure  that 
the  sight  of  it  affords  the  layman. 

The  great  interest  of  the  excavation  really  cen- 
tres in  the  inscriptions  discovered.  Mr.  Kabbadias 
looked  up  from  his  arduous  work,  the  hot  afternoon 
of  our  arrival,  upon  a  much-defaced  inscription,  and 

146 


AN  UNUSUAL  APPROACH  TO  EPIDAUROS 


said  with  an  enthusiasm  which  means  much  in  a 
quiet  man  :  "  I  tell  you  no  man  has  a  right  to  think 
that  he  understands  Greek  life  if  he  has  not  read 
these  inscriptions  of  Epidauros."  These  inscrip- 
tions, at  any  rate,  kept  him  from  sleeping  during 
the  afternoon  hours  of  summer  days  when  nearly  all 
Greeks  sleep,  even  if  they  do  not  sleep  nights. 

Among  this  material  there  is,  perhaps,  nothing 
more  interesting  than  two  long  inscriptions,  each 
containing  records  of  twenty  or  more  cases  of  mirac- 
ulous cures  wrought  on  sick  people  who  came  here 
and  went  to  sleep  in  a  long  porch,  remains  of  which 
survive.  The  cures  are  mostly  wrought  in  dreams. 
Here  is  a  sample  (I  quote  from  the  stone)  : 

"  Case  of  a  man  with  a  cancer  in  his  stomach.  He  went  to 
sleep  and  had  a  vision.  The  god  seemed  to  him  to  command 
his  attendants  to  seize  him  and  hold  him  that  he  might  cut  open 
his  stomach.  He  himself  seemed  to  be  trying  to  run  away ;  but 
the  attendants  caught  him  and  bound  him,  while  ^Esculapius 
opened  his  stomach,  cut  out  the  cancer,  sewed  up  the  incision, 
and  released  him  from  his  bonds.  And  after  this  he  went  away 
healed  ;  and  the  floor  of  the  apartment  was  covered  with  blood.' ' 

The  following  case  ascribes  to  the  god  the  power 
to  work  cures  upon  an  absent  person  : 

"  Case  of  Arata  of  Sparta  having  dropsy.  Her  mother,  leav- 
ing her  in  Sparta,  slept  and  had  a  vision.  It  seemed  to  her  that 
the  god  cut  off  her  daughter's  head  and  hung  up  the  body  with 
the  neck  downward,  and  when  a  great  quantity  of  water  had  run 
out,  took  the  body  down  again  and  replaced  the  head  upon  the 

147 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


neck.  After  she  had  seen  the  vision  she  returned  to  Sparta,  and 
found  her  daughter  restored  to  health,  having  seen  the  same 
vision. M 

As  if  to  put  the  seal  of  verification  upon  these 
cases,  two  inscriptions  tell  of  doubters  who  were 
convinced  of  the  god's  power  to  heal,  against  their 
will.  One  records  the  case  of  a  man  with  all  the 
fingers  of  one  hand  paralyzed  except  one,  who,  see- 
ing these  tablets  in  the  sacred  precinct  recording 
the  miraculous  cures,  laughed  and  doubted : 

"  Now  this  man,  in  his  sleep,  seemed  to  see  the  god  seize  hold 
of  his  hand  and  straighten  out  his  fingers,  and  when  the  man,  in 
doubt,  kept  opening  and  shutting  his  fingers  to  see  whether  it 
were  really  true,  the  god  seemed  to  ask  him  if  he  now  doubted 
the  truth  of  the  inscriptions.  When  the  man  replied  that  he  was 
convinced,  the  god  said  to  him:  <  Because  you  did  not  at  once  be- 
lieve things  that  were  in  no  wise  incredible  I  give  you  the  name 
of  "  The  Doubter/ 9  ' 

This  was  the  only  vengeance  inflicted  by  the  mild 
god  upon  this  " doubting  Thomas"  ;  for  "when  day 
dawned  he  went  away  healed." 

Some  think  that  this  great  healing  establishment 
had  two  strings  to  its  bow,  and  that  alongside  of 
the  miraculous  cures  which  drew  the  crowd  there 
was  a  treatment  which  approached  in  some  degree 
the  regular  practice  of  medicine.  At  any  rate  it  is 
clear  that  water  played  a  great  role  here,  not  only 
from  the  inscriptions,  but  also  from  the  fact  that  the 
precinct  is  honeycombed  with  water-pipes.  Sun- 

148 


AN  UNUSUAL  APPROACH  TO  EPIDAUROS 

light  and  good  air  were  also  doubtless  operative. 
The  Hieron  lies  in  a  bowl,  high  up,  it  is  true,  but 
finely  protected  from  the  winds,  especially  the  north 
wind  and  east  wind.  It  possesses  the  qualities  of  a 
good  winter  resort.  In  summer  it  is  now  some- 
what hot,  but  the  air  is  certainly  not  so  sultry  as  in 
the  lower  lying  parts  of  Argolis.  As  the  precinct 
is  spoken  of  in  ancient  times  as  a  "  grove,"  there 
must  then  have  been  abundant  shade  all  about. 
Numerous  porches  also,  with  various  exposures, 
gave  an  option  between  sun  and  shade.  We  should 
not  go  far  astray  in  speaking  of  the  Hieron  as  an 
ancient  Carlsbad  as  well  as  an  ancient  Lourdes. 
But  in  its  material  equipment  it  was  greatly  supe- 
rior to  both  ;  for  from  very  early  times  down 
through  the  days  of  the  Antonines  one  noble  build- 
ing after  another  was  reared  here  under  the  super- 
vision of  the  best  architects. 

When  the  cool  of  the  day  had  come  on  we 
strolled  over  the  sacred  precinct,  and  then  with  Mr. 
Kabbadias  and  his  family  took  dinner  at  a  table  set 
in  the  open  air  just  behind  the  stage  building. 
Close  by  us  was  the  fine  cavea  of  the  theatre,  re- 
splendent with  the  light  of  a  summer  full-moon.  It 
is  easily  understood  that  such  a  visit  is  more  im- 
pressive than  the  usual  one  from  Nauplia,  in  which 
most  of  the  day  is  taken  up  in  coming  and  going 
and  one  has  but  about  three  hours  to  see  the  place 
and  take  a  hurried  luncheon. 

149 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


Rising  the  next  morning  at  two  o'clock  from  our 
mattresses  on  the  floor  beside  the  statues  in  the  mu- 
seum, we  struck  into  a  more  Alpine  road  even  than 
that  by  which  we  had  come,  into  the  roughest  part 
of  Argolis.  At  eight  o'clock  we  passed  the  water- 
shed between  the  Argolic  and  the  Saronic  gulfs, 
from  which  both  are  plainly  visible,  and  here,  high 
up  between  Ortholithi  and  the  Didyma,  we  took 
our  well-earned  breakfast  beside  a  spring.  At  noon 
we  were  at  the  ruins  of  Troezen,  and  so  almost 
home. 


150 


MESSENE  AND  SANDY  PYLOS 


IN  passing  from  Olympia  to  Sparta  by  sea  in  1891 
I  had  put  into  the  harbor  of  Pylos  at  sunset ; 
and  had  not  fellow-travellers  urged  me  on  I  could 
not  have  resisted  the  powerful  charm  of  the  place. 
A  hurried  visit  to  Ithome  the  next  day  afforded 
some  compensation,  and  Sparta,  approached  by  the 
magnificent  Langadha  Pass  through  Taygetos,  made 
me  forget  my  loss  entirely.  But  for  years  that  sun- 
set and  nightfall  lingered  in  my  memory,  accom- 
panied by  the  hope  of  letting  the  impression  of 
Pylos  deepen  upon  me  by  a  second  visit.  Ten 
years  and  a  half  later  I  found  myself  again  in  Mes- 
senia,  with  the  full  intention  of  filling  up  the  gap  in 
my  acquaintance  with  that  corner  of  Greece ;  but  it 
was  December,  and  a  heavy  rain  set  in  and  drove 
our  party  back  to  Athens  by  rail. 

In  January  of  the  present  year  six  of  us  took  the 
train  at  Athens  for  Kalamata,  the  modern  capital  of 
Messenia.  It  was  immediately  after  a  heavy  fall  of 
snow  ;  and  we  hoped  at  least  to  revel  in  the  sight  of 
Arcadia  presenting  a  Swiss  aspect,  but  indulged  also 
the  larger  hope  of  studying  carefully  Messene,  and 
especially  Pylos.  Neither  hope  failed  us;  Arcadia 
was  magnificent  in  its  winter  dress.    In  Tripolitza, 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


which  is  over  two  thousand  feet  high,  the  snow  lay 
several  inches  thick,  and  the  train  threaded  its  way 
among  mountains  carrying  heavy  masses  of  it.  The 
journey  paid  for  itself. 

But  a  series  of  April  days  followed.  The  first  of 
them  we  spent  in  the  "  blessed  plain  "  adjacent  to 
Kalamata,  which  far  surpasses  all  the  rest  of  Greece 
in  exuberant  fertility.  Semi-tropical  vegetation, 
heavily  loaded  orange-trees,  vineyards  hidden  by 
enormous  hedges  of  cactus,  with  a  full  flowing  river, 
make  one  huge  garden.  But  the  setting  is  more 
magnificent  than  the  jewel  itself.  A  deep  bay 
comes  running  up  on  the  south  ;  Taygetos  towers 
to  the  east,  and  less  magnificent  mountains  to  the 
north.  Only  on  the  west  is  the  plain  bordered  by  a 
low  range  which  looks  rather  tame,  but  which  later 
gave  us  work  enough  to  get  across  it  on  our  way 
to  Pylos.  The  goal  of  our  first  day's  journey 
lay  about  fifteen  miles  to  the  north,  where,  between 
two  considerable  peaks  on  the  west  side  of  the 
"  blessed  valley,"  lay  the  Messene  of  the  fourth 
century  before  Christ,  founded  by  Epaminondas. 

Tardy  restitution  given  to  a  long-suffering  people ; 
late  righting  of  an  ancient  wrong !  Let  us  not, 
however,  think  of  Epaminondas  as  acting  out  of 
pure  benevolence.  He  was  studying  the  best  means 
of  putting  a  check  upon  the  power  of  Sparta.  For 
some  two  centuries  and  a  half  Sparta's  heel  had 
rested  heavily  on  this  people,  its  nearest  kin,  who 

152 


MESSENE  AND  SANDY  PYLOS 

were  by  no  means  weaklings,  if  we  can  put  any 
trust  in  the  tales  of  the  first  and  second  Messenian 
wars.  Twice  in  those  fierce  struggles  the  balance 
was  held  nearly  even  for  almost  a  generation,  when 
it  tipped  in  favor  of  Sparta;  and  the  Messenian 
state  sank  in  blood  and  slavery.  At  last  the  ful- 
ness of  time  had  come,  and  with  it  Sparta's  doom. 
The  Delphic  oracle  given  to  Aristodemos  centuries 
before  was  fulfilled:  "Do  as  fate  directs,  but  ruin 
falls  on  some  before  others." 

The  exiles  were  called  back  from  far  and  near. 
So  tenacious  had  they  been  of  their  dialect  that 
they  became  a  people  in  the  most  natural  way  in 
the  world.  That  they  loved  their  land  is  no  won- 
der. The  new  city  made  by  Epaminondas  was  laid 
out  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Ithome,  perhaps  on  the 
site  of  an  older  city.  At  any  rate,  Ithome  was  the 
fortress  in  which  Aristodemos  made  the  last  stand 
against  Sparta  in  the  first  war.  In  the  small  Greek 
world  the  sensation  caused  by  the  reappearance 
of  the  Messenian  state  may  be  compared  to  that 
which  would  be  felt  in  Europe  to-day  if  Poland 
should  again  take  her  place  among  the  nations. 

So  great  had  been  the  vicissitudes  of  the  Messe- 
nian people  that  Pausanias  for  once  drops  his  role  of 
periegete  to  become  the  historian  of  a  gallant  race 
that  succumbed  to  force  and  fate.  But  what  his- 
tory !  Besides  quoting  the  poet  Tyrtaeus  he  gives 
as  his  principal  sources  of  information  one  prose 

i53 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

historian  and  one  poetical  historian.  The  prose 
writer,  Myron  of  Priene,  he  thinks  "  reveals  an  in- 
difference to  truth."  One  might  think,  then,  that 
Pausanias  was  intent  on  sifting  out  the  pure  grain 
and  throwing  away  the  chaff.  But  the  following 
is  a  fair  sample  of  the  kind  of  history  that  he  serves 
up  for  us. 

The  first  Messenian  war  had  lasted  twenty  years, 
with  varying  success  and  failure  ;  but  at  that  point 
the  Delphic  oracle  told  the  Messenians  that  the 
party  which  first  dedicated  a  hundred  tripods  in  the 
sanctuary  of  Ithomian  Zeus  would  surely  win.  The 
Messenians  were  elated,  thinking  that  surely  no- 
body could  do  this  but  themselves,  since  they  held 
that  sanctuary ;  but  to  make  sure  of  it,  since  bronze 
was  scarce,  they  at  once  set  about  making  the 
tripodsof  wood.  But  the  oracle  leaked  out  in  Sparta ; 
and  "an  insignificant  fellow,  but  with  brains,"  made 
a  hundred  little  clay  tripods,  and,  slinging  them 
over  his  shoulder  in  a  bag,  went  up  to  Ithome  as  a 
hunter,  escaping  notice  by  his  "  mere  insignifi- 
cance "  ;  and  after  dark  crept  into  the  sanctuary  and 
set  up  his  little  tripods  around  the  altar  of  Zeus. 
When  the  Messenians  saw  them  in  the  morning 
they  had  not  a  doubt  that  all  was  lost.  The  king, 
Aristodemos,  incontinently  committed  suicide.  But 
others  fought  on  hopelessly  to  the  bitter  end,  losing 
all  their  generals  and  men  of  prominence.  The 
second  war,  of  little  less  duration,  came  to  an  end 

i54 


MESSENE  AND  SANDY  PYLOS 

with  another  Delphic  oracle.  The  great  fortress 
Eira  on  the  northern  border  had  been  stoutly  de- 
fended for  years,  when  the  Pythian  priestess  said  : 
"When  a  he-goat  drinks  Neda's  eddying  water  I 
will  save  Messene  no  longer,  for  destruction  is  near." 

For  a  time  there  was  great  hustling  to  keep 
the  he-goats  away  from  the  River  Neda.  But  one 
day  a  seer  noticed  a  wild  fig-tree,  which  in  Messe- 
nian  parlance  was  called  tragos,  a  he-goat,  growing 
crooked,  and  bending  over  the  Neda  so  as  to  brush 
the  water  with  the  tips  of  its  leaves.  He  showed 
this  to  the  general,  Aristomenes,  who  agreed  with 
him  that  all  was  lost ;  but  instead  of  committing 
suicide  like  the  leader  in  the  former  war,  he  fought 
on  like  a  real  hero,  and  even  after  the  cause  was 
lost  became  a  terror  to  the  Spartans  on  their  own 
side  of  Taygetos.  One  wonders  whether  a  people 
ever  really  believed  that  the  issue  of  great  wars 
turned  on  such  portents.  Such  yarns  may  have 
been  spun  several  centuries  after  the  events,  by  the 
more  or  less  mendacious  historians,  to  whom  Pau- 
sanias,  in  his  character  of  historian,  refers  as  his 
sources  from  which  he  drew  his  pure  history  of  Mes- 
senia. 

But  however  flimsy  the  history  of  those  past 
centuries,  the  walls  of  the  new  city  are  solid  reality. 
Pausanias  records  that  "  the  first  day  was  devoted  to 
prayer  and  sacrifice  ;  but  on  the  following  days  they 
proceeded  to  rear  the  circuit  wall,  and  to  build 

155 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

houses  and  sanctuaries  within."  Why  did  he  not 
say  "  the  following  years  "  ?  These  walls  are  so  ex- 
tensive, as  well  as  so  massive,  that  one  wonders 
whether  they  could  have  been  built  in  less  than  five 
years.  But  there  was  every  reason  that  the  wall 
should  be  built  at  once,  to  secure  the  new  city  against 
the  attacks  of  Sparta  ;  and  we  have  so  many  cases 
of  rapid  wall-building  on  the  part  of  the  Greeks 
that  we  can  believe  almost  any  feat  ascribed  to  them 
in  this  line.  Pausanias  recognizes  these  walls  as 
something  extraordinary,  saying:  "  I  have  not  seen 
the  walls  of  Babylon,  nor  the  Memnonian  walls  at 
Susa  in  Persia,  nor  have  I  heard  of  them  from  per- 
sons who  have  seen  them  ;  but  Ambrosos  in  Phokis, 
Byzantium,  and  Rhodes  are  fortified  in  the  best 
style ;  and  yet  the  walls  of  Messene  are  stronger 
than  theirs.''  A  great  deal  of  this  circuit  wall,  over 
five  miles  in  extent,  has  now  disappeared  ;  but,  on 
the  north  side  the  Arcadian  gate,  with  adjacent 
towers  and  lines  of  wall,  not  only  justifies  Pausa- 
nias's  admiration,  but  makes  the  visitor  of  to-day 
stand  long  in  mute  astonishment.  The  walls  of 
Tiryns  are  of  more  gigantic  blocks  ;  but  they  made 
simply  an  enclosure  of  a  palace. 

The  view  from  the  top  of  Ithome,  which  towers 
above  the  city,  is  superb  ;  but  Pausanias  must  have 
thought  it  much  higher  than  it  really  is  when  he 
said,  "  There  is  no  higher  mountain  in  the  Pelopon- 
nesus."   Taygetos,  which  stared  him  in  the  face,  is 

156 


MESSENE  AND  SANDY  PYLOS 

more  than  five  thousand  feet  higher  ;  so  are  Kyllene 
and  Aroania.  But  it  is,  with  the  possible  exception 
of  Vlocho,  the  acropolis  of  the  Thestiaei,  in  ^Etolia, 
the  highest  acropolis  in  Greece,  measured,  not  from 
the  sea  level,  but  from  the  plain  at  its  foot. 

Pylos  is  about  thirty  miles  distant  from  Kalamata, 
across  the  western  prong  of  the  Peloponnesus.  Our 
maps  led  us  to  think  that  there  was  a  fair  road 
across.  But  more  than  fifty  persons  assured  us  that 
it  was  impossible  for  bicycles.  We  were  convinced, 
however,  that  we  knew  better  than  they  what  one 
could  accomplish  with  bicycles,  knowing  from  ex- 
perience that  a  bridle-path  is  often  better  than  a 
poor  carriage-road.  We  took  the  train,  however, 
as  far  as  Nisi  (officially  styled  Messene,  though  ten 
miles  distant  from  the  Messene  of  classical  times), 
thus  cutting  off  about  seven  miles  of  our  journey. 
In  the  face  of  loud  and  universal  dissuasion  we 
struck  out  for  Pylos,  and  in  two  hours  we  had  cut 
off  seven  miles  more  of  the  road,  having  dismounted 
perhaps  fifty  times  when  it  was  either  too  muddy  or 
too  sandy,  or  when  the  path  became  six  inches  wide 
and  two  feet  deep.  An  occasional  orange  plucked 
from  an  overhanging  bough  was  a  consolation  for 
hard  work.  We  had  not  yet  drawn  far  away  from 
the  sea,  and  had  passed,  by  fairly  good  bridges,  six 
rivers.  But  now  we  came  to  a  river  with  no  bridge. 
While  we  were  hesitating,  a  man  came  out  of  a  hut 
near  by  and  offered  to  carry  us  across,  wheels  and 

i57 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


all,  for  a  drachma  apiece.  While  he  was  rapidly 
lowering  his  price  we  had  got  over,  boy  fashion, 
each  for  himself,  with  the  added  pleasure  of  a  very 
cold  foot-bath. 

Directly  after  this  the  road  took  a  turn  up  a 
mountain  side,  over  rough  rock  strata  set  on  edge. 
For  the  middle  third  of  the  journey  the  worst  that 
had  been  said  was  short  of  the  horrible  truth.  We 
toiled  up  and  down  over  the  path  of  jagged  stones, 
carrying  our  wheels  and  bags.  Not  until  two  hours 
before  sunset  did  we  get  our  first  glimpse  of  the 
western  sea ;  and  darkness  fell  upon  us  before  we 
reached  the  carriage-road  running  along  the  shore 
northward  from  Pylos.  We  even  struck  a  bog  in 
the  dark  ;  but  by  keeping  straight  on  we  staggered 
out  upon  the  firm  road  at  last,  probably  with  some- 
thing of  the  feeling  which  Ulysses  had  when  he 
tumbled  ashore  at  Scheria  after  his  long  swim. 
Three  hours  later  we  were  sleeping  on  beds  by  no 
means  so  soft  as  the  bog  from  which  we  had  been 
delivered. 

The  Pylos,  where  we  passed  the  night,  is  a  com- 
paratively new  town,  having  grown  up  around  a 
fort  built  by  the  Franks  in  the  thirteenth  century 
on  the  south  side  of  a  great  bay.  Venetians  occu- 
pied it  later.  It  received,  also,  the  name  of  Nava- 
rino  from  some  merchants  of  Navarre,  who  settled 
there  in  the  fifteenth  century.  This  new  Pylos, 
beautifully  situated,  looks  out  upon  a  scene  so 

158 


MESSENE  AND  SANDY  PYLOS 


lovely  that  words  fail  to  describe  it ;  and  in  this 
spot  history  has  been  made. 

The  Bay  of  Navarino,  about  three  miles  long 
from  north  to  south,  and  about  two  miles  broad,  is  a 


large  natural  harbor,  shut  off  from  the  sea  by  what 
was  in  prehistoric  ages  a  long,  continuous  cliff,  but 
which  in  historic  times  had  already  been  broken 
open  in  three  places.    The  opening  farthest  north 

159 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

had  ages  ago  already  been  silted  up  with  sand  ;  and 
the  next  one  is  in  a  fair  way  to  become  so  before 
long.  The  northern  end  of  the  bay  has  also  been  a 
good  deal  silted  up  by  streams  flowing  into  it ;  and 
a  long  sand-bar  has  at  last  entirely  shut  it  off  from 
the  rest,  making  of  it  a  lake. 

The  particular  feature  which  imparts  picturesque- 
ness  to  the  bay  is  the  already  mentioned  cliff,  which 
rises  almost  perpendicularly  in  the  greater  part  of  its 
extent  to  a  height  varying  from  one  hundred  to 
three  hundred  feet,  or  even  more.  The  face  of  these 
cliffs  is  in  places  very  red,  and  when  struck  by  the 
morning  sun  they  are  gorgeously  colored. 

In  the  fifth  century  before  Christ  the  southern 
section  of  the  hill  was  called  Sphacteria,  and  was,  of 
course,  an  island  ;  the  section  next  it  on  the  north, 
which  would  have  been  an  island  had  not  the  open- 
ing to  the  north  of  it  been  silted  up,  was  called 
Pylos ;  after  that  follows  a  low  promontory  well 
joined  to  the  mainland.  There  can  be  little  doubt 
that  the  name  Pylos  is  a  survival  of  Homeric  times, 
and  that  here  we  must  look  for  the  home  of  Nestor. 
It  has  become  a  fashion  in  the  past  few  years  to  look 
for  the  Homeric  Pylos  farther  north,  partly  to  fur- 
nish a  better  road  for  Telemachos's  chariot  ride  from 
Pylos  to  Sparta,  and  partly  because  no  Mycenaean 
remains  have  been  found  here.  But  it  is  about  as 
easy  to  take  Telemachos  straight  over  Taygetos  as 
it  is  to  find  any  more  convenient  road  farther  north. 

1 60 


MESSENE  AND  SANDY  PYLOS 


Pherae,  where  the  two  days'  journey  was  divided  by 
a  night's  rest,  has  been  reasonably  well  identified 
with  some  ancient  walls  on  the  slope  of  Taygetos 
above  Kalamata  ;  and  if  the  journey  was  undertaken 
from  our  Pylos  it  would  be  about  evenly  divided 
there. 

Furthermore,  in  the  great  cave  on  the  north  end 
of  Pylos,  which  is  probably  the  cave  where,  accord- 
ing to  legend,  the  baby  Hermes  hid  the  oxen  of 
Apollo  which  he  had  stolen,  there  were  found  in 
1896  vase  fragments  of  Mycenaean  and  even  of  pre- 
Mycenaean  times.  Who  knows  how  soon  serious 
excavations  may  bring  to  light  Mycenaean  walls 
under  the  great  Venetian  fortress  ?  Such  a  harbor 
as  this  could  hardly  have  failed  to  be  known  and 
occupied  in  the  earliest  times ;  and  surely  there 
is  sand  enough  here  to  justify  Homers  standing 
epithet  of  "  Sandy  Pylos." 

But  if  the  Homeric  glory  should  be  stolen  away, 
this  bay  would  yet  be  remembered  as  the  scene  of 
that  most  picturesque  of  naval  battles  in  which  the 
allied  fleet,  sailing  in  through  the  broad  southern 
entrance  one  afternoon  in  1827,  annihilated  in  two 
hours  the  Ottoman  fleet,  and  brought  about  the 
independence  of  Greece.  Some  of  the  wrecks  from 
this  battle  are  still  to  be  seen  on  shore  and  beneath 
the  water. 

But,  after  all,  it  is  an  episode  in  the  Peloponne- 
sian  war  that  has  given  this  region  its  chief  renown. 

161 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

This  episode  has  been  described  in  the  luminous 
narrative  of  Thucydides  ;  and  the  land  and  the  book 
so  exactly  coincide  that  we  can  trace  every  move- 
ment of  the  Athenians  and  Spartans  in  that  struggle 
of  more  than  two  months7  duration.  In  one  respect 
only  is  Thucydides's  topography  wide  of  the  mark, 
for  that  he  makes  Sphacteria  a  mile  too  short  is  not 
important ;  he  says  that  the  southern  entrance  is 
broad  enough  for  eight  ships  to  sail  in  abreast, 
whereas  it  is  approximately  a  mile  wide.  The  whole 
Athenian  fleet  of  fifty  ships  could  easily  sail  in 
in  line.  Arnold  of  Rugby  felt  this  difficulty  so 
strongly  that  in  his  edition  of  Thucydides  he  ad- 
vanced the  view  that  Pylos  was  Sphacteria,  suppos- 
ing that  the  third  opening  at  the  time  of  Thucydides 
had  not  been  silted  up.  He  then  sought  Pylos  in 
the  northern  promontory  of  the  mainland.  This, 
however,  was  jumping  out  of  the  frying-pan  into 
the  fire  ;  for  if  one  makes  the  middle  mass  Sphac- 
teria the  large  island  to  the  south,  generally  taken 
to  be  Sphacteria,  is  utterly  ignored.  There  is  no 
doubt  that  Thucydides  in  this  one  point  departed 
from  his  principle  of  always  getting  information  from 
eye-witnesses.  Some  have  thought  he  got  this  broad 
opening  confounded  with  a  narrower  one,  which  at 
that  time,  before  the  sand-bar  reached  clear  up  to 
Pylos,  as  it  now  does,  led  into  the  northern  part  of 
the  bay,  a  sort  of  lagoon,  affording  a  secure  harbor, 
in  which  the  Spartan  fleet  awaited  attack,  supported, 

162 


MESSENE  AND  SANDY  PYLOS 

morally  at  least,  by  the  proximity  of  their  land 
forces.  In  every  other  point  the  narrative  fits  the 
minutest  nuances  of  hill  and  shore. 

Most  unexpectedly  the  seat  of  war  was  transferred 
to  this  quarter.  In  the  spring  of  425  b.c.  an 
Athenian  fleet  was  sailing  past  Pylos  bound  for 
Sicily,  on  which  Athens  even  then  had  her  eye, 
with  instructions  to  attend  first  to  the  Spartan  fleet 
that  was  hovering  off  Kerkyra,  trying  to  bring  the 
island  over  to  the  Peloponnesian  alliance  by  the  aid 
of  their  partisans  then  in  exile  near  at  hand.  Ac- 
companying the  fleet  was  Demosthenes,  the  man  of 
deeds,  whose  path  through  this  war  is  marked  with 
brightness.  Ever  capable  and  adequate  to  every 
emergency,  he  was  at  last  destroyed,  and  Athens 
with  him,  by  the  incompetency  of  Nikias.  In  the 
previous  year  he  had  gained  in  Akarnania  the  great- 
est Athenian  victory  of  the  war,  cutting  off  all  the 
able-bodied  men  of  Ambrakia  and  luring  Sparta 
into  a  discreditable  abandonment  of  her  allies.  In 
the  full  enjoyment  of  the  public  confidence  he  ac- 
companied the  fleet,  with  indefinite  powers  to  use 
it  in  any  way  that  seemed  to  be  for  the  good  of 
Athens. 

When  they  were  off  Pylos  he  saw  there,  in  that 
deserted  region,  a  chance  to  strike  a  deadly  blow  at 
Sparta.  He  proposed  to  fortify  Pylos,  and  estab- 
lish there  Messenians,  who,  knowing  the  land  and 
loving  it,  would  be  a  thorn  in  the  side  of  Sparta. 

163 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

But  the  Admirals,  Eurymedon  and  Sophokles,  felt 
that  the  chief  function  of  the  fleet  was  to  save 
Kerkyra,  inasmuch  as  Athens  had  entered  into  the 
war  depending  upon  the  help  that  this  great  naval 
power  could  give.  They  refused  to  stop,  telling 
Demosthenes  that  there  were  headlands  enough  on 
the  shores  of  Peloponnesus  as  good  as  this,  if  he 
really  wanted  to  throw  away  the  money  of  Athens 
in  fortifying  them.  He  had  no  power  of  coercion  ; 
but  he  tried  every  form  of  persuasion.  The  men 
agreed  with  the  Admirals  ;  but  he  turned  to  the 
captains ;  and  when  they  also  refused  to  help  him 
out  he  had  to  abandon  his  plan  and  move  on  with 
the  rest.  The  relation  of  Demosthenes  to  the  fleet 
seems  droll.  But  by  his  strong  personality,  aided 
by  luck,  he  accomplished  all,  and  perhaps  more  than 
all,  that  he  had  hoped  for. 

The  fleet  had  hardly  put  out  to  sea  when,  luckily 
for  him,  a  storm  came  on,  and  they  were  all  driven 
back  into  the  bay  for  shelter.  The  storm  continued 
for  several  days,  and  after  awhile  the  men  by  a 
common  impulse  began  to  fortify  Pylos.  It  was  a 
regular  lark.  They  had  brought  along  no  tools  to 
cut  stones ;  so  they  took  stones  which  lay  ready  at 
hand  and  piled  them  up  just  as  they  happened  to  fit. 
They  used  their  backs  as  hods  to  carry  mud,  clasping 
their  hands  low  down  behind  them  and  letting  their 
companions  load  them  up.  Two  short  stretches 
of  wall  at  the  north  and  south  ends  made  Pylos 

164 


MESSENE  AND  SANDY  PYLOS 

secure  from  attack  on  the  land  side.  Another 
longer  one,  but  not  so  high,  on  the  sea  front  at  the 
southwest  angle  was  a  sort  of  lure  to  invite  attack  by 
sea.  In  front  of  the  wall  was  the  only  level  space 
on  Pylos  ;  but  before  one  could  reach  it  by  sea  he 
must  run  his  ship  in  close  to  a  belt  of  jagged  rocks, 
and  get  across  them  as  best  he  could.  Demosthe- 
nes, who  was  the  director  of  all  this  jolly  activity, 
frankly  told  his  men  that  he  never  meant  to  fight 
behind  this  wall,  but  in  front  of  it ;  never  allowing 
a  man  of  the  enemy  to  reach  the  shore. 

In  six  days  the  work  of  fortification  was  com- 
pleted ;  and  the  Admirals  went  on,  leaving  Demos- 
thenes and  five  of  their  forty  ships  to  carry  out  his 
plan.  By  good  luck  his  men,  who  were  marines  and 
not  very  well  equipped  for  land  fighting,  were  im- 
mediately re-enforced  by  a  Messenian  pirate  boat, 
with  a  lot  of  wicker  shields  on  board,  and,  to  crown 
all,  forty  heavy  armed  soldiers  (hoplites). 

Before  a  blow  was  struck  this  simple  lodgment 
of  Demosthenes  brought  about  two  great  results. 
The  Spartan  fleet  hastened  back  to  the  spot,  slipping 
past  the  Athenian  fleet ;  and  the  Spartan  army, 
which  had  made  the  annual  invasion  of  Attica,  came 
hastily  back  to  Sparta  after  only  fifteen  days  of 
occupation.  The  fleet  occupied  the  bay,  and  the 
land  army  butted  its  head  in  vain  against  the  walls 
on  that  side.  Then  came  the  attempt  which  De- 
mosthenes had  expected.     They  tried  to  land  in 

165 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

ront  of  his  sea-wall.  But  as  the  handful  of  men  in 
possession  held  their  ground  not  a  Spartan  reached 
the  shore,  though  the  gallant  Brasidas,  who  here 
appears  as  the  simple  commander  of  a  trireme, 
tried  it  with  a  daring  that  nearly  cost  him  his  life. 
For  nearly  two  days  this  attack  continued.  It 
failed  as  signally  as  the  land  attack.  The  Spartans 
were  at  their  wits'  ends.  They  had  sent  to  Asine,  a 
day's  journey  distant,  for  big  timbers  to  make  bat- 
tering-rams and  break  down  the  walls  toward  the 
mainland.  They  also  landed  a  force  on  the  island, 
Sphacteria,  to  overawe  by  their  proximity  the  Athe- 
nians across  the  narrow  channel,  and  to  prevent  any 
future  lodgment  of  the  Athenians  on  Sphacteria 
also. 

When  the  Spartan  fleet  had  first  appeared  De- 
mosthenes had  sent  two  of  his  five  triremes  to  ad- 
vise the  Athenian  Admirals  that  the  plot  was  thick- 
ening ;  and  the  Athenian  fleet,  strengthened  to  fifty 
sail,  appeared  off  the  entrances  of  the  bay ;  but  see- 
ing both  entrances  defended  by  the  Spartan  fleet 
and  the  shore  crowded  with  Spartan  soldiers,  it  put 
about,  and,  going  back  to  an  island  a  few  miles  to 
the  north,  passed  the  night  there.  This  was  prob- 
ably a  ruse  to  throw  the  Spartans  off  their  guard  ; 
for  the  next  day  the  Athenians  reappeared,  and 
with  no  hesitation  drove  in  at  both  entrances  upon 
the  Spartans,  who  were  evidently  not  thoroughly 
prepared.     After  a  long  and  fierce  struggle  the 

166 


MESSENE  AND  SANDY  PYLOS 


victory  of  the  Athenians  was  decisive.  They 
erected  a  trophy,  gave  up  the  Spartan  dead,  took 
possession  of  the  wrecks  and  many  of  the  sound 
vessels  of  the  enemy,  and  sailed  at  will  around  the 
bay  and  the  entrances.  The  main  army  of  the 
Spartans  lay  close  at  hand ;  but  all  their  hope  of 
getting  materials  for  battering  down  Demosthenes's 
landward  walls,  or  of  starving  out  his  little  band, 
was  cut  off. 

The  whole  situation  was  changed  at  a  single 
blow.  The  centre  of  interest  shifts  to  the  island, 
Sphacteria,  where  the  Spartans  were  now  impris- 
oned. The  Athenians  thought  them  sure  game, 
and  patrolled  the  island  to  cut  off  escape.  The 
situation  was  so  serious  that  the  highest  magis- 
trates of  Sparta  appeared  on  the  scene,  and,  after 
surveying  the  situation,  decided  that  the  only  thing 
to  do  was  to  propose  a  truce.  And  a  truce  was 
immediately  agreed  upon,  all  the  Spartan  ships  be- 
ing given  over  to  the  Athenians  as  a  pledge  until 
Spartan  envoys  could  be  taken  to  Athens  on  an 
Athenian  trireme  and  secure  a  permanent  treaty  of 
peace. 

The  envoys  went  and  begged  for  peace,  but  the 
party  in  power  at  Athens  made  too  great  demands, 
and  the  envoys  returned  re  infecta.  The  Athe- 
nians, claiming  some  slight  infraction  of  the  treaty, 
refused  to  deliver  over  the  ships. 

All  interest  was  now  centred  on  the  fate  of  the 

167 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

Spartans  shut  up  on  Sphacteria.  Instead  of  lay- 
ing down  their  arms  they  waited  for  the  Athenians 
to  "come  and  take  them."  The  starving  process 
failed,  because  daring  Spartans  on  shore  were  found 
who  risked  their  lives  to  carry  in  provisions.  He- 
lots, especially,  ran  every  risk,  securing  freedom  as 
the  price  of  success.  The  Athenians  themselves 
suffered  terribly,  inasmuch  as  they  controlled  only 
the  sea,  and  so  were  forced  to  take  their  meals  in 
cramped  quarters  or  in  imminent  fear  of  attack  by 
the  dreaded  Spartan  hoplite.  More  painful  still 
was  the  lack  of  good  drinking  water.  They  were 
obliged  to  scratch  away  the  sand  with  their  hands 
and  drink  brackish  sea  water.  The  Spartans  on 
the  island  had  a  well  which  afforded  much  better 
water.  When  this  strain  had  lasted  nearly  two 
months  the  patience  of  the  Athenians  gave  out. 
But  just  at  this  critical  time  a  fire  was  accidentally 
started  on  the  island  by  some  Athenians  who  were 
cooking  their  dinner  there,  out  of  sight  of  the 
Spartans.  Nearly  the  whole  island,  which  was  un- 
inhabited and  heavily  wooded,  was  burned  over. 
For  the  first  time  the  Athenians  were  able  to  see 
how  few  the  enemy  were,  and  to  watch  their  move- 
ments. Demosthenes,  now  the  soul  of  every  move- 
ment, resolved  to  attack  them.  But  in  the  mean- 
time tidings  of  the  sad  plight  and  sufferings  of  the 
besiegers  had  been  carried  to  Athens,  and  a  stormy 
and  somewhat  amusing  scene  had  taken  place  in 

168 


MESSENE  AND  SANDY  PYLOS 

the  Athenian  Assembly,  in  which  Cleon,  the  leader 
of  the  majority,  who  had  been  responsible  for  the 
failure  of  the  peace  negotiations,  was  compelled, 
much  against  his  will,  to  go  to  Pylos,  as  com- 
mander, "  to  show  how  easy  it  was  to  take  the 
Spartans  by  force.,,  But  he  arrived  in  the  nick  of 
time,  and,  by  trusting  everything  to  Demosthenes, 
he  went  back  to  Athens  with  the  captives  within 
the  few  days  in  which  he  had  boastfully  said  he 
would  do  it.  It  was,  however,  well  understood  at 
Athens  that  the  planner  and  executer  of  the  deed 
was  Demosthenes.  Aristophanes,  in  the  Knights, 
makes  Demosthenes  say:  1  'Out  at  Pylos  I  had 
kneaded  up  a  Spartan  cake,  and  Cleon,  in  a  most 
rascally  manner,  snatched  it  away  and  served  it 
up."  Demosthenes  landed  on  the  island  a  force  of 
about  fifteen  thousand  men,  mostly  light  armed, 
who  could  skip  about  over  the  rocks  and  burnt 
trees,  inflicting  injuries  on  the  Spartan  hoplites 
without  suffering  much  in  return.  There  were  only 
420  Spartans,  and  no  note  is  taken  of  their  attendant 
light  armed.  If  we  allow  seven  such  attendants  to 
each  of  them,  which  is  a  usual  proportion,  we  should 
have  a  total  force  of  3,360;  but  as  Thucydides  says 
nothing  of  light  armed  troops  on  the  Spartan  side,  but 
makes  it  an  affair  of  hoplites  against  light  armed,  there 
was  probably  not  a  large  body  of  auxiliaries  present 
to  the  Spartans ;  but  allowing  the  maximum,  the 
opposing  forces  were  in  a  proportion  of  five  to 

169 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


one.  If,  however,  the  light  armed  attendants  were 
lacking,  the  proportion  was  about  fifty  to  one. 
Never  in  all  Spartan  history  did  their  splendid 
fighting  machine  better  show  its  superiority  than  in 
the  slow  march  from  the  well  at  the  centre  of  the 
island  to  the  "  old  fort "  at  the  north  end.  Demos- 
thenes had  distributed  his  light  armed,  in  detach- 
ments of  several  hundred  each,  all  along  the  line 
of  march.  His  small  force  of  hoplites,  every  time 
it  was  confronted  by  the  Spartans,  fell  back  at  once 
and  gave  place  to  the  light  armed,  who,  with 
arrows  and  javelins,  inflicted  severe  losses,  easily 
keeping  out  of  reach  of  the  Spartan  spears.  There 
was,  in  fact,  no  serious  loss  to  chronicle  on  the 
Athenian  side.  But  that  the  little  company  led  by 
Epitidas  should  move  steadily  toward  its  goal  dur- 
ing the  whole  of  a  long  summer  day,  half  stifled 
with  ashes  and  smoke,  oppressed  by  raging  thirst, 
surrounded  by  yelling  thousands  and  pelted  by 
every  kind  of  missile,  without  the  slightest  thought 
of  surrender,  is  perhaps  the  most  brilliant  page  in 
the  annals  of  Sparta.  However  much  we  may  be 
inclined  to  throw  up  our  cap  at  every  success  of 
Athens,  we  must  here  assign  the  honors  to  the 
vanquished.  The  movement  of  the  Spartans  over 
that  mile  and  a  half  reminds  us  of  a  lion  worried 
by  a  pack  of  yelping  hounds. 

Epitidas,  and  after  him  the  second  in  command, 
had  been  killed  before  the  little  band  reached  the 

170 


MESSENE  AND  SANDY  PYLOS 

fort,  which  is  made  in  a  semicircle  around  the  west 
side  of  the  peak  to  which  the  island  rises  on  the 
northeast.  When  they  got  inside  this  the  attack 
slackened.  But  the  end  came  by  a  turn  that  one 
can  hardly  understand,  even  with  all  the  explana- 
tion afforded  by  an  exact  knowledge  of  the  lay  of 
the  land.  A  Messenian  captain  told  the  Athenian 
leaders  that  they  were  wasting  time  and  men,  but 
that  he  knew  a  way  to  approach  the  Spartans  in  the 
rear.  His  suggestion  being  accepted,  he,  with  a  few 
desperate  men,  scrambled  up  a  precipice  and  ap- 
peared suddenly  on  the  summit  in  the  rear  of  the 
Spartans. 

The  mystery  is  how  this  could  have  been  so  un- 
expected by  the  Spartans;  a  single  picket  posted 
on  the  summit,  only  a  few  paces  distant  from 
the  line  that  they  were  defending,  could  have  seen 
the  approach  of  the  new  enemy.  How  could  they 
have  failed  to  keep  such  a  watch  ?  But  the  sudden 
appearance  of  the  Messenians  is  regarded  as  closing 
the  fight.  The  Athenian  commanders  preferred  to 
capture  rather  than  kill,  and  so  summoned  the  sur- 
vivors to  surrender.  They  then  lowered  their 
shields.  Their  commander  at  once  asked  permis- 
sion to  communicate  with  the  Spartan  army  on  the 
mainland.  This  was  granted  ;  and  when  the  an- 
swer came  back,  "The  Lacedemonians  bid  you  act 
as  you  think  best  ;  but  you  are  not  to  dishonor 
yourselves,"  they  consulted  and  surrendered.  Of 

171 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

the  420  Spartan  hoplites,  120  surrendered.  That  a 
hundred  Spartans  had  surrendered  on  the  field  of  bat- 
tle threw  Greece  into  wild  amazement,  and  broke 
the  spell  of  Sparta's  supposed  invincibility  until  it 
was  restored  again  by  Agis  on  the  field  of  Mantineia 
seven  years  later. 

In  modern  warfare  we  consider  it  folly  to  throw 
away  life  after  the  battle  is  absolutely  decided  ;  and 
on  Sphacteria  we  bow  our  heads  reverently  to  the 
Spartans  who,  after  a  fight  never  surpassed  in  the 
world's  history,  dared  to  surrender  and  save  their 
lives  for  the  good  of  Sparta.  When,  however,  we 
pass  over  to  Pylos  we  pass  to  an  admiration  of  De- 
mosthenes, who  planting  himself  in  the  midst  of 
dangers,  outwitted  and  outfought  the  enemy  in  supe- 
rior numbers ;  and,  by  his  wise  plan,  brought  Sparta 
into  such  a  position  that,  had  Athens  possessed  a 
statesman  wise  enough  to  use  it,  she  might  have 
concluded  an  honorable  peace  which  would  have 
left  her  victor  in  the  struggle  into  which  Pericles 
led  her  with  his  eyes  wide  open.  But  Cleon  let  the 
golden  opportunity  pass  through  his  fingers.  The 
handful  of  heroes  that  were  paraded  so  long  in 
Athens  were  only  a  miserable  residuum  of  the  lost 
opportunity. 


172 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

IT  was  with  an  appetite  whetted  by  long  waiting 
that  I  landed  in  Sicily  on  the  last  day  of  May, 
1897.  Anybody  might  enjoy  travel  in  Sicily.  Its 
scenery  is  magnificent.  A  mountainous  country  with 
a  coast-line  of  rugged  headlands,  and  here  and  there  a 
river  breaking  through  to  the  sea,  opening  up  vistas 
into  the  interior  and  forming  a  fertile  plain  at  its 
mouth ;  above  all,  snow-capped  and  smoking  ^Etna, 
with  its  nearly  eleven  thousand  feet  towering  so  high 
as  to  be  seen  from  every  part  of  the  island  except  the 
valleys,  form  a  combination  attractive  even  to  one 
who  has  left  history  and.  art  out  of  his  travelling 
outfit.  The  student  of  history,  however,  gets  a 
keener  enjoyment  in  this  land  where  so  much  his- 
tory— ancient,  mediaeval,  and  modern — has  been  en- 
acted. Not  only  was  it  the  apple  of  discord  be- 
tween Rome  and  Carthage,  but,  to  say  nothing  of 
Sikans,  Elymi,  and  Sikels,  because  their  move- 
ments are  wrapped  in  the  mist  of  a  prehistoric 
past,  Phoenicians,  Greeks,  Carthaginians,  Romans, 
Franks,  Vandals,  Goths,  Byzantines,  Saracens, 
Normans,  Germans,  French,  and  Spaniards  succes- 
sively shaped  its  destinies  until  Garibaldi  at  last 
brought  it  to  rest  in  the  bosom  of  the  kingdom  of 

i73 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

Italy.  But  Sicily  has  an  especial  interest  for  the 
student  of  the  history  and  art  of  ancient  Greece. 
He  who  studies  the  country  now  known  as  Greece 
and  neglects  the  greater  Hellas  in  the  west  makes 
a  great  mistake.  Akragas  and  Selinus  have  left 
more  imposing  ruins  than  Athens,  Olympia,  and 
Delphi;  and  Syracuse  was  at  one  time  the  most 
populous  and  the  most  powerful  of  all  Greek  cities. 

It  was  this  especial  claim  which  drew  me  and  my 
two  companions,  members  of  the  American  School 
at  Athens,  to  Catania.  We  desired  to  become  as 
familiar  with  western  Hellas  as  we  had  already 
become  with  eastern  Hellas.  We  came  rather  too 
late  in  the  year  ;  not  that  physical  comfort  is  an 
element  for  great  consideration  in  such  a  land ;  it 
is  rather  the  psychological  aspect  which  I  have  in 
mind.  Theocritus  has  thrown  such  associations  of 
spring  over  Sicily  that  the  traveller  feels  that  he 
ought  to  be  there  with  ' 'pulses  thronged  with  the 
fulness  of  the  spring,"  which  can  hardly  be  the 
case  in  the  great  heat  of  June.  Perhaps  our  bicy- 
cles might  seem  to  some  out  of  time  with  Theocri- 
tus and  Pindar,  and  we  did  not  try  to  throw  any 
glamour  of  poetry  over  them.  But  they  were 
vastly  convenient.  We  had  sent  forward  our  heavy 
luggage  to  Palermo,  and  they  carried  all  that  we 
needed  for  two  weeks.  While  they  were  not  a 
substitute  for  trains,  they  freed  us  from  servile 
dependence  on  trains.     If  a  train  went  our  way  at 

174 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

our  time,  as  it  did  from  Syracuse  to  Girgenti,  we 
took  it.  But  finding  no  railroad  connection  be- 
tween Girgenti  and  Selinus,  except  such  as  took  us 
across  to  the  north  side  of  the  island  and  then  back 
again  to  the  south  side,  we  passed  the  intervening 
space  in  a  direct  line  along  the  southern  shore,  sav- 
ing both  time  and  money.  When  we  were  at  Syra- 
cuse we  wished  to  visit  the  river  Asinaros,  where 
the  fugitive  Athenian  army  was  brought  to  bay  and 
slaughtered  and  captured.  The  five  o'clock  train 
was  too  early.  Who  likes  to  take  a  morning  meal 
at  half-past  four  with  the  fear  of  losing  a  train  be- 
fore his  eyes  ?  Discomfort  if  not  dyspepsia  hovers 
over  him.  The  alternative  of  a  later  train  involved 
giving  up  the  day  to  this  excursion,  and  we  needed 
that  day  for  something  else.  We  took  a  comfort- 
able meal,  and,  starting  at  six  o'clock,  at  a  quarter 
past  eight  were  on  the  banks  of  the  Asinaros,  and 
by  the  aid  of  a  train  were  back  in  Syracuse  at  ten 
o'clock,  ready  for  a  good  day's  work. 

Our  beginning  was  inauspicious.  A  chapter  of 
small  accidents  on  the  lava-paved  streets  of  Catania 
kept  us  hovering  around  a  shop  presided  over  by  a 
woman  in  which  sewing-machines  and  a  few  other 
miscellaneous  machines,  including  bicycles,  were  re- 
paired. Here,  in  a  subordinate  position,  was  one 
of  those  mechanics  who  know  how  to  do  things  as 
if  by  instinct,  a  not  unworthy  successor  of  Hephaes- 
tos,  who  used  to  do  business  on  a  grander  scale 

i75 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

hard  by,  with  iEtna  for  his  forge.  Your  real  me 
chanic,  from  Tubal  Cain  down,  is  always  the  right 
man  in  the  right  place.  A  deft-handed  New  Hamp- 
shire mechanic  once  said  to  me,  after  putting  some 
dislocated  object  to  rights  in  less  than  five  minutes, 
"  I  shall  have  to  charge  you  ten  cents  for  doing  the 
job  and  fifteen  cents  for  knowing  how."  It  struck 
me  as  a  good  expression  of  the  claims  of  the  guild. 

When  we  got  off  it  was  nearly  eleven  o'clock, 
and  the  flower  of  the  day  was  gone ;  but  we  had 
vowed  to  see  the  sunrise  from  the  theatre  of  Taor- 
mina  the  next  morning ;  and  so  we  sped  off  in  the 
heat  over  roads  so  bad  as  to  make  us  repent  of  all 
the  hard  things  we  had  said  of  the  roads  of  Greece. 
A  good  deal  of  the  way  lay  between  iEtna  and 
the  sea  over  lava-beds  of  various  ages,  among  them 
the  identical  stream  which,  coming  down  fresh 
and  hot,  turned  Himilco  from  proceeding  straight 
against  Dionysius  and  Syracuse  after  the  destruc- 
tion of  Messina,  and  obliged  him  to  make  the 
circuit  of  the  awful  mountain.  Shortly  after  noon 
we  passed,  on  the  highest  of  these  lava-beds,  Acir- 
eale,  the  most  important  of  several  Acis,  all  of 
which  commemorate  Acis,  who  here,  to  his  grief, 
associated  with  Galatea  and  Polyphemus.  Near  by 
are  several  jagged  islands  pointed  out  by  tradition 
as  the  very  rocks  which  the  latter  hurled  at  Ulysses 
with  such  poor  results.  From  this  point  on  Taor- 
mina  lay  clear  before  us  in  the  distance,  high  up 

176 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

above  the  sea,  though  but  a  short  horizontal  dis- 
tance from  it.  When  we  reached  Giardini,  the  vil- 
lage on  the  seashore  which  serves  as  a  railroad 
station  for  Taormina,  parched  with  heat  and  thirst, 
we  were  reminded  of  the  verse  of  Euripides, 
"The  sea  washes  away  all  human  ills,"  and  we  here 
began  a  series  of  baths  with  which  we  encircled  the 
island.  Nemesis  marked  me  when,  in  exuberance 
of  spirit,  I  made  the  understatement,  "This  bath 
is  worth  a  dollar,"  and  made  it  cost  me  just  that 
amount.  Between  the  road  and  the  shore  was  a 
railroad  with  a  cactus  hedge  on  each  side  of  it.  In 
passing  this  I  hardly  noticed  that  my  wheel  had 
lightly  brushed  against  a  cactus  plant.  But  we  had 
hardly  begun  the  ascent  to  Taormina  before  my 
wheel  was  in  a  state  of  collapse. 

Well,  the  morrow  must  take  thought  for  the 
things  of  itself.  Here  was  Taormina  for  us  to  en- 
joy. We  had  planned  to  spend  one  night  only 
here,  because  there  was  little  material  for  archaeo- 
logical study  except  the  famous  theatre,  which  in 
its  present  state  is  Roman.  It  was  indeed  refresh- 
ing to  see  near  the  upper  rim  of  the  theatre,  and 
partly  covered  by  its  massive  but  cheap-looking 
walls  of  brick,  the  foundations  of  a  Greek  temple 
in  four  courses  with  its  perfect  joints  of  stone. 
But  while  Syracuse  and  Girgenti  and  Selinus  were 
our  proper  fields  for  study,  Taormina  was  for  pleas- 
ure.   From  this  eyrie,  iEtna,  which  from  Catania  is 

177 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

in  some  degree  disappointing,  as  is  even  Mont 
Blanc  when  seen  from  Chamonix,  rises  as  grandly 
as  does  Mont  Blanc  when  seen  from  the  heights 
across  the  valley,  Flegere  or  Brevent ;  and  when  the 
sun,  rising  over  Calabria,  gives  a  rosy  color  to  the 
slope  up  to  the  snow-line,  one  gazes,  forgetting  the 
theatre  in  the  glory  of  the  mountain. 

Although  we  had  studied  the  theatre  adequately 
on  the  first  day,  we  were  caught  by  the  charm  of  the 
place  ;  and  a  second  sunrise  in  the  theatre  seemed 
so  desirable  that  we  broke  our  carefully  drawn  up 
itinerary  at  the  very  outset,  the  necessary  two-thirds 
vote  being  easily  obtained.  About  a  thousand  feet 
above  Taormina  rises  a  height  which  once  served  as 
an  acropolis  to  ancient  Tauromenium,  crowned  with 
a  village  and  castle  called  Mola.  Having  climbed 
this  in  the  hot  afternoon  we  saw,  about  another  thou- 
sand feet  above  us,  a  point  called  Monte  Venere, 
which  seemed  to  dominate  the  whole  region.  We 
subsequently  read  in  Frances  Elliot's  "  Travels  in 
Sicily,"  "  Certain  misguided  travellers  have  even 
been  known  to  attempt  Monte  Venere."  But  not 
suspecting  at  the  time  that  we  were  misguided,  but 
only  questioning  whether  the  scaling  of  Monte  Ve- 
nere would  cost  us  our  table  d'hote  dinner  at  the 
Hotel  Timeo,  we  decided,  by  a  rather  doubtful  two- 
thirds  vote,  to  try  it.  We  stormed  it  at  a  pace  such 
as  the  Bavarian  division  struck  at  Speicheren  when 
told  that  a  fresh  keg  of  beer  was  to  be  broached 

178 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 


"  up  there  "  at  ten  o'clock,  and  that  they  must  be  on 
hand.  As  the  result  of  our  toil  we  got  a  superb 
view  into  the  interior,  including  a  peep  in  behind 
iEtna,  which  from  this  point  seemed  even  grander 
than  from  Taormina.    It  was  labor  well  spent. 

During  our  whole  stay  at  Taormina  there  was  no 
spot  on  which  my  eye  and  my  thoughts  so  frequently 
rested  as  on  the  little  tongue  of  land  just  below  us 
to  the  south,  which  we  had  passed  in  coming  from 
Catania.  On  this  vine-covered  plain  once  lay  Naxos, 
settled  by  men  from  Chalkis  in  734  B.C.  What  a 
chain  of  consequences  followed  upon  this  small  begin- 
ning !  Leontini  and  Catania  were  founded  from 
Naxos  itself  almost  immediately  afterward.  Dorian 
Corinth,  following  hard  after  Ionian  Chalkis,  founded 
Syracuse,  and  with  the  birth  of  western  Hellas 
the  strife  of  Dorian  and  Ionian  was  made  a  part  of 
its  life.  But  before  this  strife  brought  ruin  a  period 
of  expansion  and  prosperity  followed  which  finds  its 
only  parallel  in  the  two  centuries  and  a  half  of  the 
history  of  our  own  country. 

Having  no  desire  to  traverse  again  a  bad  road,  we 
took  an  early  train,  which  brought  us  back  to  Cata- 
nia at  eight  o'clock.  Our  first  visit  there  was  to  the 
"  divine  artificer,"  who  found  eight  punctures  im- 
partially distributed  over  my  two  tires.  We  thus 
learned  to  know  the  cactus  in  a  new  light.  Here- 
after we  avoided  even  a  dry  piece  of  it  lying  in  the 
road  as  cavalry  would  avoid  caltrops.    We  took  ad- 

179 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

vantage  of  the  necessary  delay  to  visit  the  most  inter- 
esting monument  of  Greek  Catania,  the  theatre, 
covered  by  lava,  on  which  rest  the  houses  of  the 
modern  city.  Enough  underground  excavation  has 
been  done  to  enable  one  to  realize  the  appearance 
of  the  place  when  Alcibiades  here  harangued  the 
Catanians  to  bring  them  over  to  the  Athenian  alli- 
ance, and  had  such  drastic  force  lent  to  his  lisping 
oratory  by  a  body  of  Athenian  hoplites,  who,  com- 
ing from  their  camp  outside  the  city,  broke  down  a 
weak  spot  in  the  wall  and  entered  the  city  before  he 
got  to  his  peroration. 

Again  it  was  about  noon  when  we  mounted  with 
intention  to  ride  to  Lentini,  somewhat  over  a  third 
of  the  way  to  Syracuse,  across  a  level  plain,  and 
then  take  a  train  across  the  hill-country  to  within 
ten  miles  of  Syracuse,  there  to  resume  our  ride.  For 
an  hour  or  more  we  were  passing  through  the  famous 
"  Campi  Laestrygonii,"  which  Cicero  calls  "uberrima 
pars  Sicilicz"  now  known  as  the  plain  of  Catania, 
the  most  extensive  plain  in  Sicily.  Then  we  crossed 
the  Symaethos,  and  soon  began  a  gentle  climb,  with 
the  sun  almost  in  the  zenith.  Now  and  then  a  turn 
in  the  road,  or  if  not  that,  a  look  over  the  shoulder, 
gave  us  a  fine  view  of  iEtna,  which  kept  increasing 
in  majesty  as  we  receded  from  it.  I  was  thankful 
that  we  had  not  climbed  it.  That  would  have  in 
some  measure  vulgarized  it.  A  geologist  might  do 
it  in  the  line  of  his  profession.    But  one  who  wishes 

1 80 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 


to  keep  the  ^Etna  of  ^Eschylus  and  Pindar  may  do 
better  to  gaze  with  awe  from  the  hill  of  Syracuse,  as 
they  did,  upon  this  Greek  Sinai.  I  do  not  want  to 
overpower  a  mountain  like  that.  I  want  it  to  over- 
power me.  One  may  doubt  whether  Coleridge 
would  or  could  have  written  his  hymn  to  Mont 
Blanc  if  he  had  "  conquered  "  it,  as  tourists  express  it. 

Just  as  the  train  for  Syracuse  was  coming  in  we 
reached  Lentini  station,  and  this  time  the  sea  that 
"washes  away  all  human  ills"  was  not  available. 
We  here  made  a  resolve  to  do  our  work  in  the 
future  when  the  sun  was  nearer  the  horizon.  There 
was  nothing  of  interest  for  us  to  investigate  in  the 
city  of  Gorgias,  the  sophist  and  orator,  whose  sil- 
ver tongue,  combined  with  a  bold  and  transparent 
trick  of  the  Segestans,  duped  the  Athenians,  who 
thought  themselves  the  wisest  of  men,  into  the 
Sicilian  expedition.  We  were  accordingly  glad  to 
speed  along  to  Priolo,  a  station  between  the  ruins 
of  Megara  and  the  flat  peninsula,  Thapsos.  Just 
beyond  the  latter,  having  ridden  long  enough  to 
get  up  steam,  we  washed  away  our  ills  for  that  day 
with  the  hill  of  Syracuse  looking  down  upon  us, 
and  then  as  renewed  men  passed,  when  the  sun 
was  approaching  the  horizon,  over  that  historic  hill, 
and  looked  down  on  the  historic  harbor  and  on 
little  Ortygia,  large  enough  to  hold  the  modern 
city  as  it  held  the  first  Corinthian  colony.  What  a 
tide  of  associations  rush  over  one  at  this  sight !  In 

181 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


a  sense  we  were  at  our  goal.  Had  we  closed  our 
journey  with  that  nightfall  we  should  at  least  have 
read  our  Thucydides  for  the  future  with  different 
eyes. 

In  an  exaltation  of  spirit  we  came  to  the  Casa 
Politi,  almost  at  the  point  of  Ortygia,  looking  out 
upon  the  sea,  where  we  found  a  German  host  and 
hostess.  After  our  strenuous  and  partially  success- 
ful wrestling  with  Italian,  which  had  generally 
ended  by  our  falling  back  on  the  member  who  had 
taken  Italian  at  Harvard  to  straighten  out  for  us 
the  tangled  web  of  the  dialogue,  how  welcome  it 
was  when  we  asked  the  question,  "Haben  Sie  viel- 
leicht gutes  Bier  fn  to  get  straight  from  the  shoulder 
the  honest  answer,  "Jawohl,  gewiss"  and  the  more 
tangible  answer  of  three  foaming  mugs  from  a  cool 
cellar.  We  had  lived  in  the  spirit  a  good  deal  that 
day,  enjoying  the  beauty  of  Taormina,  iEtna,  and 
Syracuse,  and  holding  converse  with  Alcibiades  and 
Gorgias  and  Thucydides.  Now  we  hobnobbed 
with  Gambrinus,  and  enjoyed  "the  warmest  wel- 
come in  an  inn." 

I  have  never  had  more  full  and  exhilarating  days 
than  those  four  days  in  Syracuse,  days  full  of  reve- 
lation, recollection,  reverie,  or,  to  put  it  more  pro- 
saically, days  devoted  to  study  in  history  and  topog- 
raphy. The  ruins  of  Syracuse  are  not  to  the  casual 
observer  very  imposing.  One  might  almost  say  of 
them,  " periere  etiamque  ruinee"     But  even  these 

182 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

ruins  have  great  interest  for  the  archaeologist. 
There  is,  for  example,  an  old  temple  near  the  north- 
ern end  of  Ortygia,  for  the  most  part  embedded  in 
the  buildings  of  the  modern  city,  yet  with  its  east 
end  cleared  and  showing  several  entire  columns 
with  a  part  of  the  architrave  upon  them.  And  what 
a  surprise  here  awaits  one  who  thinks  of  a  Doric 
temple  as  built  on  a  stereotyped  plan  !  Instead  of 
the  thirteen  columns  on  the  long  sides  which  one  is 
apt  to  look  for  as  going  with  a  six-column  front, 
here  are  eighteen  or  nineteen,  it  is  not  yet  quite 
certain  which.  The  columns  stand  less  than  their 
diameter  apart,  and  the  abaci  are  so  broad  that  they 
nearly  touch.  So  small  is  the  intercolumnar  space 
that  archaeologists  incline  to  the  belief  that  in  this 
one  Doric  temple  there  were  triglyphs  only  over  the 
columns,  and  not  also  between  them  as  in  all  other 
known  cases.  Everything  about  this  temple  stamps 
it  as  the  oldest  in  Sicily.  An  inscription  on  the 
top  step,  in  very  archaic  letters,  much  worn  and 
difficult  to  read,  contains  the  name  of  Apollo  in  the 
ancient  form,  'AireXovc.  The  inscription  may,  of 
course,  be  later  than  the  temple ;  but  it  is  in  itself 
old  enough  to  warrant  the  supposition  that  the  tem- 
ple was  erected  soon  after  the  first  Corinthian  colo- 
nists established  themselves  in  the  island.  While 
the  inscription  makes  it  reasonably  certain  that  the 
temple  belonged  to  Apollo,  the  god  under  whose 
guiding  hand  all  these  Dorians  went  out  into  these 

183 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

western  seas,  tradition,  with  strange  perversity,  has 
given  it  the  name  of  "  Temple  of  Diana."  But  it  is 
all  in  the  family.  Whether  tradition  has  also  erred 
in  naming  the  temple  on  the  highest  part  of  the  isl- 
and, into  which  the  cathedral  has  been  so  immured 
that  the  old  temple  columns  protrude  on  each  side 
of  the  church,  the  " Temple  of  Minerva,"  is  a 
question  to  which  archaeologists  have  not  yet  re- 
turned a  unanimous  answer.  Indications  point 
rather  to  Zeus.  This  temple  owes  its  preservation, 
such  as  it  is,  to  this  immuring  of  the  cathedral  in  it. 
In  fact,  the  temple  is  nearly  all  present,  although 
one  might  almost  pass  it  by  in  the  daytime  without 
seeing  it.  Another  temple  ruin  on  the  edge  of  the 
plateau,  which  begins  about  two  miles  south  of  the 
city,  across  the  Anapos,  one  might  also  easily  over- 
look in  a  casual  survey,  because  it  consists  only  of 
two  columns  without  capitals,  and  a  broad  extent 
of  the  foundations  from  which  the  accumulated 
earth  has  been  only  partially  removed.  This  was 
the  famous  temple  of  Olympian  Zeus,  built  prob- 
ably in  the  days  of  Hiero  L,  soon  after  the  Per- 
sian war,  but  on  the  site  of  a  temple  still  more 
venerable.  One  seeks  a  reason  for  the  location 
of  this  holy  place  at  such  a  distance  from  the  city. 
Holm,  the  German  historian  of  Sicily,  argues  with 
some  plausibility  that  this  was  no  mere  suburb 
of  Syracuse,  but  the  original  Syracuse  itself.  In 
the  first  place,  the  list  of  the  citizens  of  Syracuse 

184 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

was  kept  here  down  at  least  to  the  time  of  the 
Athenian  invasion.  In  the  second  place,  tradition, 
which,  when  rightly  consulted,  tells  so  much,  says 
that  Archias,  the  founder  of  Syracuse,  had  two 
daughters,  Ortygia  and  Syracusa,  which  may  point 
to  two  co-ordinate  settlements,  Ortygia  and  Syra- 
cuse ;  the  latter,  which  was  on  this  temple  plateau, 
being  subsequently  merged  in  the  former,  but,  as 
sometimes  happens  in  such  cases,  giving  its  name 
to  the  combined  result. 

Besides  these  temple  ruins  there  are  many  more 
foundations  that  tell  a  more  or  less  interesting  story. 
Then  there  are  remains  of  the  ancient  city  that  can 
never  be  ruined  :  for  instance,  the  great  stone  quar- 
ries, pits  over  a  hundred  feet  deep  and  acres  broad, 
in  some  of  which  the  Athenian  prisoners  were 
penned  up  to  waste  away  under  the  gaze  of  the  pitiless 
captors ;  the  Greek  theatre,  cut  out  of  the  solid 
rock;  the  great  altar  of  Hiero  II.,  six  hundred  feet 
long  and  about  half  as  broad,  also  of  solid  rock. 
Then  there  is  the  mighty  Hexapylon,  which  closed 
the  fortifications  of  Dionysius  at  the  northwest  at 
the  point  where  they  challenged  attack  from  the 
land  side.  With  its  sally-ports  and  rock-hewn  pas- 
sages, some  capacious  enough  to  quarter  regiments 
of  cavalary,  showing  holes  cut  in  the  projecting 
corners  of  rock,  through  which  the  hitch-reins  of 
the  horses  were  wont  to  be  passed,  and  its  great 
magazines,  it  stands  a  lasting  memorial  to  the  en- 

185 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

ergy  of  a  tyrant.  But  while  this  fortress  is  prac- 
tically indestructible,  an  impregnable  fortress  is  a 
dream  incapable  of  realization.  Marcellus  and  his 
stout  Romans  came  in  through  these  fortifications, 
not  entirely,  it  is  true,  by  their  own  might,  but  by 
the  aid  of  traitors,  against  whom  no  walls  are  proof. 

One  of  the  stone  quarries,  the  Latomia  del  Para- 
diso,  has  an  added  interest  from  its  association  with 
the  tyrant  who  made  himself  hated  as  well  as 
feared,  while  Gelon  was  only  feared  without  being 
hated.  An  inner  recess  of  the  quarry  is  called  the 
"Ear  of  Dionysius,"  and  tradition  says  that  at  the 
inner  end  of  this  recess  either  he  or  his  creatures 
sat  and  listened  to  the  murmurs  that  the  people  ut- 
tered against  him,  and  that  these  murmurs  were 
requited  with  swift  and  fatal  punishment.  Certain 
it  is  that  a  whisper  in  this  cave  produces  a  wonder- 
ful resonance,  and  a  pistol-shot  is  like  the  roar  of  a 
cannon ;  but  that  people  who  had  anything  to  say 
against  the  butcher  should  come  up  within  ear-shot 
of  him  to  utter  it  is  not  very  likely.  Historians  are 
not  quite  sure  that  the  connection  of  Dionysius 
with  this  recess  is  altogether  mythical,  but  that  he 
shaped  it  with  the  fell  purpose  above  mentioned  is 
not  to  be  thought  of,  as  the  whole  quarry  is  older 
than  his  time,  and  was  probably,  with  the  Latomia 
dei  Cappuccini,  a  prison  for  the  Athenians. 

No  object  is  more  frequently  mentioned  in  con- 
nection with  Syracuse  than  Arethusa,  the  nymph 

186 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

changed  into  a  fountain  when  pursued  across  the 
sea  by  the  river  Alpheius.  The  water  of  this  foun- 
tain, much  praised  in  antiquity,  has  in  recent  times  be- 
come brackish  by  the  letting  in  of  salt  water  through 
earthquakes.  But  what  it  has  lost  in  real  excel- 
lence it  has  gained  in  stylish  appearance.  For  the 
sake  of  its  ancient  renown,  washerwomen  have  re- 
cently been  excluded  from  it,  a  fine  wall  put  about 
it,  and  papyrus  plants  added  to  make  it  look  pict- 
uresque. Enveloped  in  a  more  natural  beauty  lies 
the  rival  fountain,  Kyane,  the  source  of  the  south- 
ern branch  of  the  Anapos  some  distance  south  of 
the  Olympieum.  The  nymph  Kyane  was  turned 
into  a  fountain  by  Pluto  because  she  told  Demeter 
of  the  rape  of  Persephone.  We  gave  half  a  day  to 
Kyane,  and  had  ourselves  pushed  up  a  stream  lined 
with  reeds  and  papyrus,  the  latter  a  reminder  of 
Saracen  occupation,  to  this  spring,  from  which  the 
stream  comes  forth  with  a  rush.  It  is  difficult  to 
decide  which  is  more  beautiful,  the  clear,  deep, 
broad  spring  or  the  stream  through  which  one  ap- 
proaches it.  The  whole  journey  is  like  an  excur- 
sion into  fairy-land,  the  outside  world  being  shut 
out  by  the  reeds  and  papyrus. 

But  if  the  monuments  of  Syracuse  are  on  the 
whole  comparatively  unimpressive,  what  a  history 
is  crowded  into  the  less  than  three  centuries  between 
Gelon,  the  second  founder  of  the  city,  in  that  he 
made  it  great,  and  Marcellus. 

187 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

This  history  is  far  from  being  a  mere  record  of 
slaughter,  and  sieges,  and  sack  of  cities.  The  time  of 
Hiero  I.  is  memorable  for  the  appearance  at  Syra- 
cuse, in  familiar  if  not  always  friendly  converse,  of 
Pindar,  Simonides,  Bacchylides,  iEschylus,  Epichar- 
mos  and  Xenophanes.  One  must  not  think  of  the 
poetry  of  this  Hieronian  circle  as  exotic  because 
most  of  the  poets  were  transplanted  :  to  the  Greek 
poets  any  place  in  the  Greek  world  where  they  were 
appreciated  and  cared  for  was  home.  Anacreon 
sang  as  well  and  as  naturally  at  Samos  and  Athens 
as  at  his  native  Teos ;  Simonides's  muse  was  appar- 
ently equally  happy  in  Athens,  Thessaly,  and  Sicily; 
and  even  the  Theban  eagle  suffered  no  relaxation  of 
his  wings  at  the  Syracusan  court ;  nay,  he  appears 
to  have  made  his  loftiest  flights  there.  Over  one- 
third  of  his  epinicion  odes  are  for  Sicilian  victors. 
Of  the  Titan  ^Eschylus  alone  of  that  company  one 
may  suspect  that,  although  he  did  not  always  get 
on  well  at  home,  yet  the  sojourn  so  far  from  Eleusis 
and  Marathon  found  him  homesick  and  heartsick. 
It  is  only  rarely  in  the  world's  history  that  such  a  lot 
of  stars  gather  around  a  court.  It  is  a  good  deal 
that  Syracuse  was  again  visited  by  the  muses  in  the 
time  of  Hiero  II.,  when  Theocritus  took  up  his 
abode  there. 

The  afternoon  before  we  left  Syracuse  we  got  a 
reminder  that  its  greatness  did  not  all  pass  away 
with  the  Roman  occupation.    The  enormous  cata- 

188 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

combs  from  Christian  times  speak  of  new  and  better 
days.  But  what  stirs  one  more  is  one  particular  spot 
in  the  crypt  of  St.  Marcian,  a  church  partly  made 
out  of  a  temple  of  Bacchus.  Here,  in  front  of  an 
old  altar,  a  block  of  stone  is  pointed  out  as  the  stone 
on  which  St.  Paul  stood  when  he  preached  at  Syra- 
cuse. One  gets  impatiently  sceptical  about  traces 
of  the  saints  in  Italy  ;  but  why  not  accept  the  report 
that  in  his  three  days'  stay  at  Syracuse,  recorded  in 
the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  St.  Paul  preached  here? 
What  is  more  fitting  than  that,  by  the  very  altar  of 
the  god  of  revelry,  the  great  apostle  should  speak  as 
he  spoke  at  Athens  ?  At  any  rate,  I  add  this  spot 
to  Appii  Forum  and  Tres  Tabernae  as  a  place  where 
I  trod  in  the  footsteps  of  a  man  beside  whom 
Gelon,  Pyrrhus,  and  Hannibal  were  pygmies. 

II 

On  the  journey  from  Syracuse  to  Girgenti  by  rail 
through  the  heart  of  Sicily  the  most  interesting 
point  is  Castrogiovanni,  the  ancient  Enna,  called 
the  navel  of  Sicily,  a  height  from  which  one  sees 
mountains  diverging  in  every  direction,  a  real  Kno- 
tenpunkt.  The  railroad  affords  a  view  of  Enna  only 
from  some  distance  as  it  plunges  into  a  long  tunnel 
under  the  ridge  joining  this  height  to  another  almost 
as  high,  on  which  stands  Calascibetta.  The  surround- 
ings of  the  old  Sikel  town,  Enna,  which,  being  early 

189 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

colonized  by  Syracuse,  became  a  lasting  monument 
of  Greek  domination  over  the  Sikel,  were  probably 
much  more  beautiful  in  ancient  times.  On  these 
rather  bare  heights  there  was  once  such  luxuriant 
growth  of  woods  and  flowers  that  hunting-dogs  lost 
the  scent  of  the  game.  In  this  flower-garden  the 
Sicilian  legend  placed  the  rape  of  Persephone. 

As  the  train  approached  Girgenti  it  passed  through 
the  great  sulphur  region  of  the  world.  Here  thou- 
sands of  boys,  many  of  them  under  ten  years  of  age, 
carry  the  sulphur  up  to  the  surface.  These  boys 
are  bound  over  by  their  parents  to  the  overseers  of 
the  mines  for  the  sum  of  two  hundred  francs,  more 
or  less,  which  they  are  expected  to  work  off.  But 
it  takes  years  to  do  it,  and  many  die  before  they  suc- 
ceed. The  parents  spend  the  purchase  money  and 
the  children  live  on  in  despair.  Our  informant,  a 
German- American,  who  had  come  over  to  study  the 
sulphur  industry,  and  who  was  not  a  sentimentalist, 
said  that  the  sight  of  these  boys  going  up  and  down 
the  ladders  with  tears  rolling  down  their  cheeks  had 
made  him  join  in  their  sighs  and  carry  a  heavy  heart 
all  the  way  to  Palermo. 

The  case  of  Girgenti  is  that  of  Syracuse  reversed. 
Its  history  is  not  so  very  important,  but  its  ruins  are 
impressive.  Even  at  Himera,  where  Theron  and 
Akragas  stood  by  Gelon  and  Syracuse,  it  was  in  a 
second  role.  On  that  occasion,  when  the  larger 
part  of  the  Carthaginian  prisoners  fell  to  Akragas, 

190 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

apparently  because  they  strayed  into  Akragantine 
territory  after  the  battle,  some  of  the  citizens  are 
said  to  have  got  five  hundred  slaves  apiece.  From 
this  time  Akragas  gave  itself  up  to  the  amassing  of 
wealth.  As  a  consequence  it  became  the  least  mar- 
tial and  most  luxurious  of  Greek  cities,  showing, 
like  Corinth,  that  a  Dorian  city,  when  once  given 
over  to  pleasure,  could  outdo  the  Ionians  in  that 
direction.  While  Syracuse  battled  with  Athens, 
Akragas  remained  neutral.  About  the  only  form 
of  strenuous  activity  to  which  it  arose  was  athletics ; 
and  even  then  a  victory  was  made  an  occasion  for 
a  display  of  wealth.  When  Exaenetos  won  in  the 
stadion  at  Olympia,  three  hundred  span  of  milk- 
white  horses  accompanied  him  into  the  city. 

The  luxury  of  Akragas  took  on  a  peculiarly  showy 
and  almost  gross  type.  The  men  loaded  themselves 
with  gold  ornaments.  They  erected  tombs  to  horses 
which  had  won  Olympic  victories  and  to  other  fa- 
vorite animals.  A  typical  Akragantine  was  Gellias, 
who  used  to  have  slaves  stand  at  his  door  and  invite 
every  passing  stranger  to  come  in  ;  and  once,  when 
five  hundred  knights  from  Gela  made  a  visit  to 
Akragas  in  the  winter,  he  took  them  all  in,  enter- 
tained them,  and  gave  each  of  them  a  new  chiton 
and  himation.  That  the  means  of  entertaiment  did 
not  fail  him  is  shown  by  the  statement  that  he  had 
three  hundred  rock-hewn  wine-barrels,  holding  each 
a  hundred  amphorae,  and  a  big  vat  holding  a  thou- 

191 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

sand  amphorae,  out  of  which  these  were  filled  ;  and 
this  was  private  hospitality. 

One  could  hardly  expect  moderation  when  such 
bountiful  provision  for  carousal  was  at  hand. 
Athenaeus  tells  a  story  showing  how  well  the  young 
men  lived  up  to  their  privileges.  Some  of  these, 
drinking  themselves  dizzy  at  a  banquet,  declared 
that  the  house  rocked  like  a  ship,  and,  as  if  to  avert 
impending  shipwreck,  began  to  lighten  ship  by 
pitching  the  furniture  out  of  the  windows,  to  the 
danger,  and  then  to  the  hilarious  delight,  of  the 
passers-by.  But  as  a  crowd  and  some  disorder 
resulted,  the  generals  went  to  the  house  to  investi- 
gate the  matter.  The  young  bloods  were  equal  to 
the  emergency.  They  accosted  the  graybeards  as 
Tritons,  thanked  them  for  deliverance  from  the 
storm,  and  vowed  to  sacrifice  to  them  so  soon  as 
they  had  got  over  their  sea-sickness  and  fright ; 
The  old  men,  being  carried  away  with  the  humor 
of  the  thing,  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the  joke, 
and  that  house  was  ever  after  known  as  "the  ship." 

Such  a  joke  might  have  been  played  in  a  good 
many  other  towns,  but  the  following  bit  of  gossip, 
if  not  true,  is  ben  trovato,  and  has  a  peculiarly 
Akragantine  flavor.  It  is  related  that  at  the  fatal 
siege  of  the  city  by  the  Carthaginians,  when  all  was 
at  stake,  a  law  was  passed  restricting  the  guards 
when  at  their  posts  to  one  under-mattress  and  one 
over-mattress,  one  blanket,  and  two  pillows.  If 

192 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 


these  things  were  done  in  a  green  tree,  what  was 
clone  in  a  dry  ?  Empedocles,  the  most  eminent 
citizen  of  Akragas,  said  of  his  fellow-citizens  that 
they  indulged  in  high  living  as  if  they  were  going 
to  die  to-morrow,  but  built  as  if  they  were  going 
to  live  forever.  The  first  half  of  this  statement  we 
have  to  judge  by  gossip,  which,  as  it  is  very  bulky 
and  all  to  the  same  point,  may  well  make  us  believe 
that  when  there  is  so  much  smoke  there  must  be 
some  fire.  For  the  corroboration  of  the  latter  half, 
go  to  Girgenti  and  civ  cum  spice. 

What  a  moment  was  that  when,  toward  the  end 
of  the  afternoon,  after  toiling  up  from  the  station 
on  the  north  side  of  Girgenti  to  the  city  itself, 
which  occupied  the  site  of  the  acropolis  of  Akragas, 
we  looked  down  on  the  plateau  sloping  southward 
toward  the  sea,  and  dotted  with  the  famous  ruins 
long  known  to  us  by  photographs.  About  a  mile 
below  us,  in  the  direction  of  the  ruins,  was  the 
Hotel  des  Temples,  which  we  had  been  told  in 
Syracuse  was  to  close  for  the  summer  the  day  be- 
fore. But  as  "  the  Greeks  got  into  Troy  by  try- 
ing," we  thought  we  would  try  to  get  into  this 
hotel,  and  be  near  our  goal.  At  the  door  a  boy  de- 
clared that  the  house  was  closed  ;  but  at  our  request 
he  said  he  would  call  the  padrone.  In  ten  minutes 
there  appeared  in  riding  clothes,  and  leading  a 
horse,  the  most  charming  landlord  of  Sicily,  with 

i93 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


a  bewitching  smile  and  the  manners  of  a  gentleman. 
He  said  that,  although  his  house  was  closed  and  his 
cook  gone,  he  had  not  the  heart  to  send  us  back  up 
into  the  city.  We  could  have,  he  said,  eight  or 
nine  beds  apiece,  and,  as  he  had  a  hunting  comrade 
with  him  for  the  night,  he  could  give  us  some  soup 
and  meat. 

More  than  satisfied  to  have  established  a  base  of 
operations,  without  a  delay  of  five  minutes  we  were 
at  the  Concordia  Temple,  the  most  perfectly  pre- 
served Greek  temple,  unless  we  except  perhaps 
the  Theseum.  Having  an  hour  and  a  half  of  day- 
light, we  used  it  in  getting  a  first  view  of  nearly 
everything  on  the  plateau,  and  then  returned  to 
what  we  supposed  was  to  be  a  frugal  meal.  But 
the  dinner  was  an  Akragantine  feast,  the  best  of 
the  whole  journey,  with  the  possible  exception  of 
the  next  one  at  the  same  table.  We  wondered 
what  sort  of  a  dinner  the  regular  cook  would  have 
produced  if  this  was  done  by  a  novice  ;  and  when 
the  padrone  made  apologies  for  his  dinner,  we 
searched  his  smiling  face  for  traces  of  sarcasm. 

The  next  day  we  enjoyed  in  detail  what  we  had 
already  enjoyed  in  the  lump,  that  row  of  temples 
lined  up  along  the  southern  edge  of  the  plateau 
which  here  ends  in  a  rocky  precipice.  These  tem- 
ples when  new,  with  the  city  of  half  a  million  in- 
habitants behind  it,  and  the  acropolis  above  it  with 
still  more  temples,  must  have  been  a  very  effective 

194 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 


sight  to  one  coming  up  from  the  sea  five  miles 
away. 

Although  the  material  of  the  temples  is  a  friable 
yellow  sandstone,  quarried  near  by,  we  must  not 
in  reconstructing  our  picture  think  of  them  as 
yellow  temples.  They  doubtless  had  stucco  and 
paint  enough  to  hide  this  core.  The  stone  is  so 
porous  that  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  the  columns 
on  the  south  side — i.e.,  the  side  most  exposed  to 
the  sirocco — badly  eaten  away.  The  whole  line 
dates  from  the  fifth  century,  and  was  doubtless 
planned  and  begun  by  Theron,  who  had  armies  of 
slaves  from  Himera. 

What  Greek  name  the  Concordia  Temple  had  is 
unknown.  Holm  suspects  that  it  is  the  temple  of 
Demeter,  although  the  substructure  under  a  church 
farther  up  the  hill  has  generally  been  assigned  to 
her.  It  owes  its  excellent  preservation  to  the  fact 
that  in  the  Middle  Ages  it  was  turned  into  a  church 
of  St.  Gregory  of  the  turnips,  whoever  he  was, 
when  the  cella  walls  were  perforated  with  a  series 
of  arches  on  each  side,  to  let  in  the  light. 

The  next  best  preserved  is  the  temple  of  Hera 
Lacinia,  in  the  most  commanding  situation  of  all, 
having  the  precipice,  which  is  here  higher  and  more 
abrupt,  on  its  east  front,  as  well  as  on  its  south  side. 
It  is  also  considerably  the  highest  of  the  line.  Its 
present  name  is  surely  wrong.  It  is  quite  likely  to 
have  been  a  temple  of  Poseidon,  a  divinity  held  in 

i95 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

honor  at  Akragas,  a  horse-rearing  as  well  as  a  mari- 
time city.  The  temple  of  Herakles  is  more  interest- 
ing than  either  of  these,  although  only  one  column 
stands  upright ;  the  rest  lie  as  they  were  thrown 
down  by  an  earthquake,  in  such  good  order  that  it 
would  be  easy  to  set  them  up  again  ;  and  the  result 
would  be  much  more  important  than  Cavalari's  so- 
called  temple  of  Castor  and  Pollux,  which,  being  a 
corner  of  a  temple  put  together  out  of  two  differ- 
ent temples,  should  be  properly  called  "  Cavalari's 
folly."  The  temple  of  Herakles  is  rightly  named. 
It  was  identified  as  being  at  the  sacred  gate  and 
near  the  agora.  It  is  much  larger  than  the  two 
temples  already  described,  and  shows,  like  them, 
traces  of  a  great  conflagration  which  reddened  the 
yellow  stone  in  places.  Its  ground  plan  is  very 
clear  but  peculiar,  and  so  extremely  interesting. 
Sicily  is  the  place  of  all  others  to  study  the  con- 
struction of  the  Greek  temple. 

But  the  object  of  greatest  interest  is  the  Zeus 
Temple,  still  farther  west  in  the  line.  This  justifies 
the  saying  of  Empedocles  above  quoted,  being  so 
large  that  the  Parthenon  could  be  lost  in  one  cor- 
ner of  it,  as  the  wooden  ladle  was  lost  in  Lady 
Wouter  Van  Twiller's  pocket.  It  is  the  most  mas- 
sive of  Greek  temples,  in  the  sense  in  which  the 
temple  of  Zeus  at  Olympia  is  more  massive  than 
the  Parthenon — i.e.,  its  columns  and  all  its  mem- 
bers are  larger.    So  enormous  were  its  dimen- 

196 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

sions  that  the  architect  readily  saw  that  he  must 
deviate  from  the  ordinary  rules  of  construction. 
Columns  of  friable  stone  fifty-five  feet  high,  sup- 
porting an  unusually  heavy  entablature,  needed  sup- 
port themselves.  Accordingly  they  were  embedded 
in  a  continuous  wall.  What  one  here  saw  was  not 
a  line  of  graceful  columns  between  which  and  the 
cella  one  could  walk  about,  but  only  a  great  wall 
with  half  columns  protruding  from  it.  These  half 
columns  were  not  really  independent  members. 
The  small  blocks  composing  them  run  over  into 
the  wall  to  the  right  and  left.  They  simply  serve 
to  break  up  a  monotonous  wall,  and  to  present  the 
appearance  of  columns.  This  contour,  which  is  a 
little  over  a  semi-circumference,  averages  about 
twenty-feet,  being,  of  course,  greater  at  the  bottom. 
A  man's  back,  as  was  remarked  by  Diodorus  Sicu- 
lus,  easily  fits  into  the  fiutings.  The  clearest  idea, 
however,  of  the  large  proportions  of  the  temple  I 
got  by  noting  that  the  grooves  in  a  triglyph  lying 
on  the  ground  measured  fifteen  feet  in  length.  It 
would  also  be  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  a  com- 
pany could  dance  on  the  top  of  one  of  the  capitals 
lying  about. 

The  inside  of  this  temple  must  have  been  as 
peculiar  as  the  outside.  The  great  question  here  is 
where  to  place  the  gigantic  figures  called  Atlantes 
or  Telamones,  male  figures  corresponding  to  the 
female  figures  on  the  Erechtheum,  but,  unlike  them, 

197 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

showing  exertion,  like  Atlas  in  the  Olympia  me- 
tope. Probably  they  stood  on  the  lateral  walls  of 
the  cella,  and,  with  their  twenty-five  feet,  they  would 
reach  up  to  the  roof,  like  the  second  row  of  col- 
umns at  Paestum.  The  cella  probably  ran  clear 
through  from  one  end  of  the  temple  to  the  other, 
and,  while  the  two  divisions  of  the  temple  to  the 
right  and  left  of  it,  which  were  as  much  closed  as 
the  cella  itself,  had  entrances  from  the  east,  the 
cella  was  probably  entered  from  the  west.  One 
has  to  say  "  probably  "  very  often  in  speaking  of  the 
interior,  because  the  temple  has  been  nearly  all  car- 
ried away  to  make  the  pier  at  Porto  Empedocle, 
the  harbor  of  the  modern  city.  As  late  as  1401 
three  columns  were  still  standing  and  carrying  a 
piece  of  the  architrave.  But  the  temple  entered 
very  early  on  the  stage  of  dilapidation,  for  the  rea- 
son that  the  roof  was  never  put  upon  it.  For  more 
than  half  a  century,  even  from  the  time  of  Theron, 
Akragas  had  wrought  upon  this  monster  building, 
and  had  not  finished  it  when  the  Carthaginian  fury 
broke  upon  her.  Although  the  city  rose  again, 
and  even  prospered,  it  never  saw  a  day  for  taking 
up  again  such  a  gigantic  enterprise. 

Besides  this  temple  of  Olympian  Zeus  there  was 
an  older  temple  of  Zeus  Polieus  on  the  acropolis,  to 
which  an  unusual  interest  attaches,  because  it  was 
built  by  Phalaris,  of  execrable  memory,  who,  hav- 
ing attached  to  himself  a  band  of  laborers  for  the 

198 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 


construction  of  the  temple,  by  their  help  seized 
the  sovereign  power  and  subverted  the  democracy. 
Down  in  the  crypt  of  the  Church  of  Santa  Maria  dei 
Greci  we  were  shown  a  regular  stylobate  of  three 
steps,  and  on  the  top  step  eight  columns,  the  upper 
parts  of  which  run  up  into  the  church,  which  shows 
also  columns  of  the  other  long  side  of  the  temple. 
Tradition  claims  this  as  the  identical  temple  built 
by  Phalaris.  But  as  the  forms  of  the  columns  for- 
bid putting  them  back  into  the  sixth  century  we  do 
better  to  identify  them  with  the  temple  of  Athena 
on  the  acropolis.  The  temple  built  by  Phalaris  is 
to  be  sought,  then,  on  the  ground  occupied  by  the 
modern  cathedral.  Jove  gave  place  to  Jesus,  and 
the  virgin  goddess,  as  at  Athens,  to  the  Virgin 
Mother. 

When  we  told  our  smiling  host  that  we  intended 
to  ride  in  one  day  from  his  hotel  to  Castelvetrano, 
the  point  of  departure  for  Selinus,  he  said  the  thing 
was  impossible.  We  told  him  that,  while  we  ad- 
mitted his  judgment  in  all  that  pertained  to  horses, 
we  were  going  to  make  the  sixty-two  miles  which, 
according  to  Baedeker,  lay  between  us  and  our 
goal  between  sunrise  and  sunset,  however  bad  the 
road  might  be.  He  then,  like  a  true  sportsman, 
got  interested,  offered  to  bet,  and  when  we  declined 
begged  us  to  telegraph  back  to  him  if  we  really 
did  it. 

As  we  had  to  wake  up  the  cook  the  next  morn- 

199 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

ing,  after  waking  up  ourselves,  the  sun  was  well  up 
in  the  heavens  before  we  got  off.  But  the  coffee 
which  cost  us  so  much  time  must  have  told  on  our 
gait  ;  for  a  fellow-countryman,  whom  we  first  met 
two  days  later  at  Palermo,  seemed  impressed  by  it, 
and  rather  proud  of  it.  He  asked,  "  Didn't  I  see 
you  go  through  Porto  Empedocle  the  day  before 
yesterday  morning  on  bicycles  ? "  When  we  as- 
sented he  said  :  "  Well,  I  told  the  American  Consul 
who  was  with  me,  1 1  bet  dose  vas  American  boys.' " 
And  the  next  day  he  repeated,  as  if  pleased  with  his 
own  sagacity,  "  I  told  the  Consul,  *  I  bet  dose  vas 
American  boys/  " 

As  we  started  the  next  morning  toward  Selinus, 
after  passing  the  night  at  Castelvetrano,  I  realized 
that  this,  more  even  than  Syracuse,  was  my  chief 
object  of  interest  in  this  long-delayed  Sicilian 
journey. 

The  history  of  this  short-lived  colony  of  a  colony 
is  invested  with  a  pathetic  interest.  Planted  by 
Sicilian  Megara  in  628  B.C.,  as  an  outpost  of  Hellas 
toward  the  west,  it  was  a  standing  challenge  to  the 
Phoenicians.  But  there  was  not  always  war  be- 
tween Hellas  and  Canaan.  The  Phoenicians,  who 
had  long  been  in  possession  of  the  west  end  of  the 
island,  were  bent  on  gain,  while  the  Greek  sought 
rather  for  a  free  unfolding  of  his  civic  life  ;  and  so, 
Selinus,  with  a  little  temporizing,  got  on  with  its 
neighbors. 

200 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

There  were  some  strange  vicissitudes  in  Sicilian 
politics.  From  the  time  when  Carthage  appeared 
in  Sicily  as  a  protector  of  the  older  Phoenician  set- 
tlements, Selinus  saw  its  advantage  in  siding  with 
her  against  other  rivals.  On  the  great  day  of  Himera, 
Gelon  and  Theron  had  to  contend  against  Selinus 
as  well  as  against  Carthage.  This  off-side  play  was 
not,  however,  regarded  by  the  other  Sicilian  cities  as 
sufficient  cause  for  shutting  Selinus  out  of  the  sister- 
hood of  states. 

But,  while  Selinus  had  an  eye  to  profit,  it  did  not, 
like  Akragas,  forget  the  art  of  war.  That  she  was  a 
power  in  western  Sicily  in  the  days  when  Carthage 
was  so  strangely  inactive  for  seventy  years  after 
Himera,  is  shown  by  an  inscription  of  this  time, 
which  mentions  a  victory  won  by  the  Selinuntians 
"  with  the  aid  of  Zeus  and  Phobos  and  Herakles 
and  Apollo  and  Poseidon  and  the  Tyndaridae  and 
Athena  and  Malophoros  and  Pasikrateia  and  the 
other  gods,  but  especially  Zeus."  This  drawing  in  of 
so  large  a  part  of  the  Pantheon  implies  that  it  was  a 
great  victory.  Probably  it  was  won  from  Segesta, 
that  most  hated  Elymian  neighbor.  But  Segesta 
knew  how  to  help  herself.  After  she  had  lured 
Athens  to  destruction  in  this  same  quarrel,  she  in- 
voked the  Carthaginian  on  a  mission  of  destruction. 
For  the  Carthaginian  was  not  subdued,  but  was 
biding  his  time,  and,  when  he  again  fell  upon  Sicily, 
it  was  his  old  ally,  Selinus,  that  first  felt  the  weight 

201 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

of  his  arm.  Then  Zeus  and  Phobos  seemed  to  for- 
sake her.  But  her  conduct  was  such  in  that  awful 
visitation  that  Hellas  had  no  reason  to  blush  for 
this  daughter. 

The  force  which  Hannibal  led  against  her  was,  at 
the  lowest  estimate,  100,000,  which  was  more  than 
the  total  population  of  the  city.  The  first  attack  on 
the  land  side,  where  the  walls  were  weak  and  out  of 
repair  because  no  danger  had  threatened  for  years, 
was  repulsed.  A  call  for  help  was  sent  to  both  Ak- 
ragas  and  Syracuse.  The  former  might  have  had  its 
contingent  before  the  walls  in  three  days,  allowing 
one  for  the  messenger.  But  Akragas  waited  for 
the  Syracusans,  who  were  two  days  farther  off,  to 
come  and  take  them  on  the  way.  She  paid  the 
penalty  for  this  delay  three  years  later.  She,  as  well 
as  Syracuse,  ought  to  have  known  that  at  Selinus 
they  would  be  fighting  for  their  own  life.  Syra- 
cuse was,  moreover,  an  ally  of  Selinus  in  the  war 
against  Athens,  which  was  finished  only  three  years 
before  with  such  eclat  as  to  make  Syracuse  a  proper 
champion  of  the  Greek  cities  against  the  great 
enemy. 

It  is  probable  that  the  call  for  help  was  sent  out 
before  the  enemy  actually  made  its  assault,  but  so 
speedy  were  the  movements  of  the  Carthaginians 
that  one  might  have  expected  even  prompt  aid  to 
come  too  late.  Selinus,  however,  held  out  with  such 
tenacity  as  to  frustrate  all  calculation.    For  nine 

202 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

days,  in  the  consciousness  that  she  stood  as  a  van- 
guard of  Hellas,  while  the  eastern  hills  were  eagerly 
scanned  for  the  succor  that  was  hourly  expected,  Se- 
linus  conducted  a  defence  rarely  equalled  in  history. 

There  were  not  men  enough  to  allow  reliefs  in 
defending  the  wall.  The  same  men  stood  at  their 
posts  day  and  night.  The  old  men  brought  new 
weapons,  and  sharpened  those  that  were  dull.  The 
women  carried  food  and  water.  Even  on  the  ninth 
day,  when  the  fierce  Iberian  mercenaries  broke 
through  the  wall  and  the  weary  defenders,  and  got 
inside  the  city,  the  defence  did  not  cease.  The  city 
had  to  be  taken  house  by  house,  men  and  women 
hurling  down  stones  from  the  house-tops  until  the 
supply  was  exhausted.  And  now,  house  after  house 
was  pillaged  by  men  spurred  on  by  the  promise  of 
free  plunder  given  by  Hannibal;  and  delicate  women 
fell  into  hands  compared  with  which  the  claws  of 
wild  beasts  were  tender.  Soldiers  paraded  the  streets 
with  heads  on  the  points  of  their  spears  and  strings 
of  hands  slung  over  their  shoulders.  Only  2,600 
survivors  somehow  found  their  way  to  Akragas. 

On  this  very  day  a  large  force  started  from  Syra- 
cuse ;  but  when,  united  with  the  contingent  of  Ak- 
ragas, it  confronted  the  Carthaginians,  the  woe  of 
Selinus  was  accomplished.  Hannibal  told  these  be- 
lated allies  that  he  had  dealt  Selinus  only  its  deserts, 
and  that  even  its  gods  had  pronounced  against  it. 
What  a  theme  for  a  Jeremiah  ! 

203 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

The  six  large  temples  of  Selinus  lie  in  a  worse 
condition  than  that  in  which  the  Carthaginians  left 
them.  Earthquakes  have  been  more  active  here 
than  at  Akragas.  But  these  ruins,  in  two  large 
groups,  one  on  the  acropolis  and  one  on  a  plateau 
to  the  east,  are  the  most  interesting,  as  well  as  the 
most  impressive,  ruins  in  Europe.  Their  interest 
lies  in  the  fact  that  they  present  us  in  tangible  form 
the  history  of  Greek  architecture  as  it  unfolded  it- 
self in  a  provincial  town.  There  is  Temple  C  (prob- 
ably a  Herakles  temple  ;  but  archaeologists  have 
refrained  from  giving  doubtful  names,  and  desig- 
nated the  temples  by  letters.  Perhaps  the  names 
given  at  Syracuse  and  Girgenti,  though  false,  are 
better  pegs  to  serve  the  memory  than  letters),  with 
"  shapeless  sculpture,"  the  well-known  metope  rep- 
resenting Perseus  cutting  off  the  head  of  Medusa, 
and  another  with  Heracles  carrying  the  mischievous 
Kerkopes  flung  over  his  shoulder.  These  grotesque 
attempts  at  sculpture,  as  well  as  the  general  consid- 
eration that  the  first  thought  of  a  colony  was  to 
erect  a  temple,  allow  us  to  date  this  oldest  temple 
of  Selinus  as  early  as  600  b.c.  The  architecture  is 
vastly  better  than  the  sculpture,  a  complete  Doric 
style,  with  something  of  the  clumsiness  which  marks 
the  venerable  ruin  at  Corinth.  Then  we  may  notice 
Temple  E,  probably  a  Hera  temple,  the  southern- 
most of  the  three  on  the  eastern  plateau,  a  large  and 
beautiful  temple,  once  most  gorgeously  painted,  and 

204 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

giving  us,  perhaps,  more  light  than  any  other  temple 
on  the  subject  of  polychromy  in  Doric  architecture. 
The  metopes,  the  best  of  which  is  Zeus  receiving 
Hera  on  Mount  Ida,  mark  this  temple  as  a  product 
of  the  early  part  of  the  fifth  century,  about  the  time 
of  the  temple  of  Zeus  at  Olympia.  Then,  at  the 
other  end  of  this  line,  on  the  eastern  plateau,  is 
Temple  G,  so  enormous  that  it  is  supposed,  like  its 
brother  at  Akragas,  to  have  been  meant  for  none 
other  than  Zeus,  the  King  of  the  gods.  It  is  a  few 
feet  longer  and  a  few  feet  wider  than  the  great  Ak- 
ragas temple.  Its  date  is  given  with  a  melancholy 
certainty  ;  for  it,  as  well  as  the  Akragas  temple,  was 
never  finished.  It  may  well  have  taken  a  small 
community  like  this  as  much  as  the  "  forty  and  six 
years"  which  the  Temple  of  Jerusalem  required  to 
put  up  such  a  colossal  building.  An  especial  inter- 
est attaches  to  it  because  we  see  it,  as  it  were, 
stopped  midway  in  a  lively  process  of  coming  into 
being.  Some  of  the  huge  drums  are  combined  into 
columns,  a  few  of  which  are  fluted  from  top  to  bot- 
tom, while  others  have  a  little  start  of  fluting  at  the 
top  and  bottom,  and  still  others  are  only  cut  in  the 
form  of  a  twenty-sided  polygon.  But  one  must  go 
to  Campo  Bello,  about  five  miles  distant,  to  feel  in 
a  still  more  lively  manner  the  interruption  of  the 
building  process.  Here  one  sees  a  cliff  where  in 
one  case  workmen  had  just  marked  out,  with  a  cir- 
cular groove,  a  column-drum  to  be  detached  from 

205 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


its  bed.  In  another  place  is  one  around  which 
workmen  have  hewn  for  months,  so  that  it  is  almost 
ready  to  be  detached.  Hard  by  are  some  already 
detached  and  rolled  a  little  distance  toward  Selinus  ; 
still  others  are  found  transported  half-way  or  more 
to  the  temple.  The  people  of  the  country  are 
filled  with  wonder  at  the  sight.  They  recognize  the 
fact  that  all  these  blocks  were  meant  for  the  great 
temple ;  and  some  of  them  told  an  early  traveller 
that  the  women  of  Selinus  used  to  carry  these  stones 
on  their  heads  from  the  quarry  to  the  temple,  spin- 
ning flax  all  the  way  as  they  went,  adding,  with 
naivete:  "  But,  you  know,  it  was  a  race  of  women 
much  larger  than  ours." 

These  interesting  temples  show,  as  they  stand 
side  by  side,  great  freedom  in  the  application  of  the 
rules  of  Doric  style.  For  instance,  the  number  of 
columns  on  the  side  of  a  hexastyle  temple  varies 
from  thirteen  to  seventeen.  The  number  of  steps 
also  varies  from  two  to  six,  instead  of  the  canonical 
three. 

When  we  visited  Segesta  the  next  day  and  saw 
its  temple,  also  unfinished,  as  it  was  when  the  city 
was  stricken  down  by  the  Greek  Agathocles,  we  felt 
little  pity  for  this  city  which  had  stirred  up  so 
much  mischief  for  its  foe,  Selinus,  and  for  its  friend, 
Athens.  But  perhaps,  after  all,  this  Elymian  city's 
greatest  crime  was  saying,  "  I  must  live."  If  Se- 
linus refused  to  accept  this  proposition,  Segesta 

206 


A  TOUR  IN  SICILY 

called  in  Athens  or  Carthage,  regardless  of  the  woes 
that  might  in  consequence  come  upon  those  who 
disputed  her  right  to  live. 

In  shooting  down  from  Segesta  to  the  northern 
shore,  without  further  exploration  of  what  may  be 
called  the  country  of  iEneas,  we  got  glimpses  of 
Mount  Eryx,  the  favorite  haunt  of  Venus ;  and 
later  in  the  day  the  train  brought  us  to  Palermo, 
"  that  wonderful  cross-section  of  history."  But  as 
it  was  not  rich  in  Greek  history  our  tour  in  western 
Hellas  was  at  an  end. 


207 


DALMATIA 


JUNE,  lovely  June,  has  been  the  bringer  of  two 
good  things  to  me — Sicily  and  the  Dalmatian 
coast;  and  now  that  the  charm  of  the  latter  is  fresh 
it  seems  almost  to  outshine  the  former. 

When  I  came  on  board  the  Austrian  Llovd 
steamer  Galatea  at  Corfu  I  had  little  idea  of 
what  awaited  me.  One  reads  of  this  "  Norway  of 
the  South/'  this  "  Switzerland  in  the  sea  "  ;  but  how 
little  these  comparisons  convey  until  the  landscape 
has  really  been  seen.  My  main  purpose  was  rest 
from  the  heat  of  Greece,  and  a  more  or  less  careful 
study  of  the  ruins  of  Spalato. 

This  Dalmatian  line  is  adapted  to  one  who  wishes 
to  travel  lazily.  The  stops  as  far  as  Spalato  are 
longer  than  the  passages  ;  the  boat,  however,  starts 
in  each  case  promptly  according  to  the  schedule.  The 
only  exception  was  at  Corfu  ;  when  all  was  ready, 
and  we  were  just  about  to  hoist  the  anchor,  a  Greek 
boatman  came  up  alongside  with  a  barge  loaded 
with  casks  and  boxes.  It  was  so  characteristic  of  a 
Greek. 

While  we  were  moving  along  the  coast  of  Al- 
bania until  late  in  the  afternoon,  there  was  nothing 
new  to  look  out  for  ;  and  so  there  was  time  to  get 

208 


DALMATIA 


acquainted  with  the  ship  and  the  passengers,  to  get 
one's  bearings.  There  were  the  rules  for  passengers 
printed  in  five  parallel  columns — English,  French, 
German,  Italian,  and  Greek— emphasizing  the  cos- 
mopolitan constituency  of  the  travelling  public.  In 
Europe,  and  especially  in  the  Orient,  it  always  pays 
to  read  regulations,  particularly  the  English  column, 
to  see  how  foreigners  wrestle  with  our  language. 
Rule  3  said:  "  Every  damage  is  to  be  made  good  by 
the  person  who  dit  it."  Rule  1 1 :  "  It  is  prohibited 
to  any  passenger  to  middle  with  the  command  and 
direction  of  the  vessel."  As  I  had  always  trusted  to 
the  captain  to  run  his  own  ship,  I  felt  safe  on  that 
point.  Particular  anxiety  for  the  ladies  ran  through 
the  rules.  One  rule  was:  " Gentlemen  are  not  al- 
lowed to  enter  the  cabins  of  the  ladies,"  and  as  a 
final  snapper  at  the  end  of  the  last  rule  was  this  sen- 
tence :  "  Passengers  having  a  right  to  be  treated 
like  persons  of  education  will  no  doubt  conform 
themselves  to  the  rules  of  good  society  by  respecting 
their  fellow-travellers  and  paying  a  due  regard  to  the 
fair  sex."  As  we  had  no  ladies  at  all  on  board  un- 
til the  journey  was  about  half  finished  it  began  to 
seem  as  if  they  had  been  frightened  away. 

The  captain,  like  most  of  the  captains  of  this  line, 
was  of  Slavic  origin.  Of  other  languages  than  his 
own  he  knew  only  Italian.  In  this  he  did  all  his 
"cussing"  at  every  port ;  and  it  seemed  to  produce 
everywhere  the  proper  effect.    His  gentlest  conver- 

209 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

sational  tone  was  like  the  blast  of  a  trumpet  and 
could  be  heard  from  stem  to  stern.  I  took  an  early 
opportunity  to  go  up  to  the  bridge  when  he  was 
there,  and  remark  apologetically  that  I  was  trav- 
elling per  vedere  quale  he  cosa.  His  laconic  reply 
was,  "Ma  perchl  no?"  With  that  I  felt  myself 
installed  on  the  bridge,  and  I  spent  more  hours 
there  during  the  voyage  than  any  one  of  the  officers. 
Perhaps  the  third-class  passengers  standing  below 
suspected  me  of  attempting  to  "  middle  with  the 
command  and  direction  of  the  vessel." 

Toward  evening  we  passed  Akrokeraunia,  the  mas- 
sive headland  ending  off  a  chain  of  mountains  back 
of  it  over  six  thousand  feet  high,  in  antiquity  the 
cynosure  of  sailors  crossing  by  the  shortest  line  from 
Italy  to  Greece.  The  modern  name,  Capo  Duro, 
suggests  its  pitilessness.  There  it  stands  running 
out  to  the  northwest,  and  so  bidding  defiance  to  the 
strongest  wind  of  the  region.  The  sea  has  beaten 
against  it  since  there  was  a  sea;  it  has  broken  away 
a  good  deal  of  it,  if  we  may  judge  by  a  single  iso- 
lated island  thrown  out  in  front  of  it.  The  high 
mountains  seem  saying  to  the  sea,  "  You  waste  your 
vain  fury  on  those  lower  rocks.  What  will  you  do 
when  you  come  to  us  ?  "  But  it  is  the  business  of 
the  patient  sea  to  help  "  draw  down  the  Aonian 
hills,"  and  until  there  shall  be  no  more  sea  Capo 
Duro  must  yield  inch  by  inch. 

Having  passed  Akrokeraunia,  we  turned  sharply 

210 


DALMATIA 


to  the  right,  and  changed  our  course  from  north  to 
south  until  we  dropped  anchor  in  the  harbor  of 
Valona.  As  far  as  Cattaro  the  chief  function  of  our 
boat  was  the  transportation  of  freight,  and  that  was 
the  reason  why  the  stops  were  so  long.  The  captain 
was  an  ardent  fisherman  ;  hardly  was  the  anchor 
down  when  his  little  boat  dropped  astern,  and  he 
fished  sometimes  far  on  into  the  night.  He  counted 
his  catch  not  by  numbers,  but  by  kilos ;  and  since 
the  other  officers  in  a  circle  around  the  stern,  lean- 
ing over  the  taffrail,  vied  with  the  captain,  fish  were 
plentiful  on  board.  All  along  this  shore  were  great 
forests  of  holm-oak,  and  the  cargo  that  we  took  on 
here  was  almost  entirely  valonia,  so  much  used  in 
Europe  by  tanners. 

In  the  night  we  got  off,  and  I  missed  the  site  of 
the  great  ancient  city  Apollonia,  a  little  to  the 
north  of  our  stopping-place.  But  in  the  forenoon 
we  stopped  at  Durazzo,  the  ancient  Dyrrhachium, 
which,  situated  at  the  beginning  of  the  great  Via 
Egnatia,  saw  the  passage  of  so  many  Roman  armies 
into  Greece.  Caesar  and  Pompey  passed  that  way  to 
their  great  struggle  for  the  possession  of  the  world. 
In  earlier  days  it  was  known  under  the  name  of 
Epidamnos,  as  the  colony  of  Kerkyra  which  set  its 
mother  city  at  war  with  her  own  mother  city, 
Corinth,  and  so  lighted  the  fire  that  destroyed 
Greece  in  the  dreadful  Peloponnesian  war.  At 
Durazzo  my  only  first-class  fellow-passenger  got  off. 

211 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

Of  third-class  passengers  we  had  a  plenty,  and  a 
nondescript  crowd  they  were  ;  in  other  words,  they 
beggared  description.  Some  were  magnificently 
dressed ;  but  even  those  who  were  in  rags  were  pict- 
uresque. If  a  painter  had  been  present  he  would 
have  been  troubled  by  an  embarras  de  richesse. 
Red  and  yellow  were  the  prevailing  colors  in  that 
motley  crowd ;  gold  embroidery  was  abundant.  The 
few  women  present  kept  pretty  well  in  the  back- 
ground, and  took  little  or  no  part  in  the  exuberant 
jollity  of  the  men,  who  sang  and  danced  in  true 
Oriental  style,  keeping  for  the  most  part  a  somewhat 
monotonous  droning,  but  rising  sometimes  into 
frenzy.  This,  continued  far  on  into  the  evening 
hours,  was  bewitching.  The  situation  was,  or  at 
least  seemed  to  be,  made  for  my  special  benefit.  I 
seemed  to  have  a  private  steamer,  with  the  captain 
and  crew  working  for  me,  and  these  fantastic  and 
jolly  people  amusing  me,  who  had  promised  not 
even  "to  middle." 

But  the  next  day  I  was  brought  from  reverie  to 
my  senses  by  the  coming  of  first-class  passengers. 
At  Dulcino,  the  first  of  the  two  harbors  recently 
gained  by  Montenegro,  which  thus  became  a  mari- 
time state,  the  Mayor  of  the  town  came  on  board 
to  travel  via  Cattaro  up  to  Cettinje,  the  capital,  a 
long  way  around,  but  the  way  of  least  resistance. 
He  did  not  break  the  charm,  for  a  more  gorgeous- 
ly dressed  and  finer-shaped  man  one  seldom  sees. 

212 


DALMATIA 

Scores  of  Montenegrins  of  the  singers  and  dancers 
of  the  preceding  evening,  cooks  and  gardeners  re- 
turning to  their  homes  from  Constantinople,  where 
they  are  in  great  demand,  crowded  around  this  mag- 
nate and  kissed  his  hand  in  true  Oriental  style, 
which  he  took  in  patriarchal  fashion.  This  was  in 
keeping  with  the  scenes  of  the  day  before  ;  but  this 
giant's  wife  and  children  were  nothing  but  ordinary, 
plain  people.  At  the  next  port,  Antivari,  a  regular 
European  lady,  the  wife  of  the  Lloyd  agent,  came 
on  board  with  the  whole  population  of  the  village  to 
give  her  a  send-off  ;  and  we  at  once  stepped  out  of 
dream-land. 

I  now  fell  into  another  mood.  The  whole  voy- 
age, with  its  long  and  frequent  stops,  began  to  seem 
a  regular  lark,  and  I  so  entered  into  the  spirit  of  the 
thing  that  I  determined  at  the  next  stop  to  get  my 
bicycle  up  out  of  the  hold  and  get  a  little  acquaint- 
ance with  the  country  which  lay  back  of  the  long 
mountain  line  of  coast.  As  we  were  booked  to 
stop  at  Cattaro  forty-four  and  a  half  hours,  that 
seemed  a  good  place  to  begin.  The  big  Montene- 
grins had  interested  me  so  much  I  would  go  up  and 
see  where  such  fellows  grew. 

Who  can  describe  the  Gulf,  or,  as  they  call  it 
there,  the  Bocche  di  Cattaro  ?  It  enjoys  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  1 4  perhaps  the  finest  harbor  in  the 
world."  There  is  a  break  in  the  coast  line  ;  as  you 
go  in  you  find  yourself  in  a  broad  bay  ;  but  that 

213 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

is  not  all  ;  you  pass  through  another  opening,  into 
another  bay,  and  so  on,  the  mountains  growing 
higher  all  the  time  until,  by  passing  five  channels, 
one  so  narrow  that  it  used  to  be  stopped  by  a  chain, 
and  so  is  called  to-day  Catena,  you  reach  the  fifth 
bay,  on  the  east  shore  of  which,  nestled  up  against 
the  base  of  a  high  dark  mountain,  one  of  those 
from  which  the  region  Montenegro  got  its  name, 
lies  Cattaro,  a  town  of  five  or  six  thousand  inhab- 
itants, the  outpost  of  Austria  to  the  south.  For  a 
brief  period  at  about  the  end  of  the  Napoleonic 
wars,  Montenegro  held  this  place  and  the  Bocche. 
No  doubt  all  Montenegrins  long  to  possess  it  again  ; 
for  it  is  their  natural  outlet  to  the  sea,  from  which 
the  thin  line  of  Austria  here  shuts  them  out,  except 
for  the  poor  harbors  farther  south. 

Much  history  has  been  enacted  around  this  gulf, 
which  was  a  prize  too  valuable  not  to  be  striven  for. 
In  fact,  it  is  a  paradise  like  few  on  earth.  All  the 
way  through  the  devious  passages  one  is  reminded 
of  Lake  Lucerne  by  the  mountain  banks  and  of 
Como  by  the  tropical  vegetation.  Many  of  the 
officers  of  the  Austrian  Lloyd  have  their  homes  on 
these  shores.  Our  captain  and  at  least  one  of  the 
other  officers  spent  two  days  here  with  their  fam- 
ilies. The  latter  brought  back  word  that  an  Amer- 
ican king  named  Morgan  had  just  visited  the 
Bocche  on  his  yacht. 

We  arrived  shortly  after  noon  ;  but  it  took  me 

214 


DALMATIA 


just  an  hour  and  a  half  to  get  my  bicycle  through 
the  custom-house.  The  officials  hardly  knew  what 
to  do  with  it.  Probably  no  bicycle  had  ever  en- 
tered that  port,  and  it  may  be  a  long  time  before  an- 
other enters.  I  have  no  doubt  that  they  thought 
me  a  fool  for  bringing  mine  in ;  and  one  could 
hardly  blame  them  for  the  thought.  The  Austrian 
officials,  however,  are  so  affable — I  have  never  met 
an  exception — that  one  cannot  think  of  losing  his 
own  patience.  In  the  cool  of  the  day,  in  order  to 
test  the  road,  I  walked,  with  a  very  little  riding,  up 
the  zigzag  road,  getting  a  little  taste  of  what  awTaited 
one  who  would  go  to  Cettinje,  and  then  dropped 
down  again  in  twenty  minutes  after  the  sun  had 
gone  down.  I  had  had  enjoyment  enough  to  pay  for 
the  experiment,  and  had  come  to  the  conclusion,  on 
perhaps  rather  insufficient  data,  that  on  the  next 
day,  with  good  weather,  I  could  get  to  Cettinje  and 
back  if  I  girded  myself  to  it,  so  slight  is  the  lateral 
distance  on  the  map. 

To  make  sure  of  the  case,  I  rose  early  and  left  the 
ship  at  half-past  four,  with  a  cake  of  chocolate  in 
my  pocket,  for  the  rest  trusting  to  living  on  the 
country.  Not  until  seven  o'clock  did  the  coun- 
try offer  anything.  Then  I  got  coffee  from  a  High- 
land girl  at  a  very  primitive  inn  at  the  point  of 
one  of  the  zigzags.  She  had  not  "  a  very  shower 
of  beauty";  but  she  did  have  "the  freedom  of  a 
mountaineer,"  and  a  kindly  twinkle  in  her  eye.  A 

215 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

man  takes  kindly  to  the  hand  and  face  that  signify 
refreshment  in  time  of  need.  When  I  asked  how 
far  it  was  to  Cettinje  the  mountain  maid  said  "  tetrt 
ore"  which,  though  it  was  a  rather  bad  mixture  of 
Italian  and  something  else,  probably  Slavic,  was 
extremely  encouraging.  Even  if  the  climb  con- 
tinued for  two  hours  more  I  ought  to  reduce  her 
"  four  hours  "  to  three.  In  fact,  at  eight  o'clock,  at 
the  end  of  three  and  a  half  hours  of  steady  toiling 
climb,  I  found  myself  at  an  altitude  of  nearly  three 
thousand  feet,  almost  perpendicularly  above  Cattaro, 
with  the  Galatea  so  near  that  it  seemed  as  if  I  could 
drop  a  stone  upon  her  deck ;  but  I  thought  it  best 
not  to  try  ;  I  was  in  a  hurry.  In  a  few  minutes  more 
I  broke  through  the  mountain  which  had  given  me 
so  much  trouble,  and  I  was  in  Montenegro.  I  soon 
passed  the  frontier  town  of  Njegus,  in  the  bed  of  a 
dried-up  lake,  the  birthplace  of  Prince  Nicholas, 
the  ruling  sovereign,  who  has  a  country  house  there 
of  such  modest  appearance  that  one  could  hardly 
believe  it  to  belong  to  a  prince, 

Now  my  work  began  anew ;  another  mountain 
wall  confronted  me  and  the  road,  which  as  far  as 
the  border  had  been  good,  was  freshly  strewn  with 
cracked  stones,  the  bicyclist's  terror.  When  at  last 
I  reached  the  top  of  this  second  range,  a  sight  worth 
seeing  unfolded  itself  before  my  eye.  All  Monte- 
negro, a  mass  of  gray  stone  rising  here  and  there 
into  peaks,  lay  spread  out  before  me.    In  the  far 

216 


DALMATIA 


northeast  one  could  see  the  important  hill  fortress 
of  Niksic,  but  no  land  anywhere  appeared.  In  fact, 
all  the  soil  in  Montenegro,  except  in  the  southern 
part  around  Lake  Skutari,  is  found  in  larger  or 
smaller  clefts  of  the  rocks  ;  Cettinje  itself  being 
simply  one  of  the  largest  of  these.  Now  it  was 
downhill,  and  I  abused  my  wheel  shamefully,  run- 
ning it  hard  over  the  stones  as  the  only  way  of 
accomplishing  the  journey.  At  about  ten  o'clock, 
just  after  feasting  my  eyes  on  the  grand  chain  of 
snow-covered  Illyrian  mountains  in  the  background, 
I  turned  a  large  cliff  and  looked  down  into  a  bowl 
five  or  ten  times  as  large  as  that  of  N  jegus,  and  saw 
at  its  farther  end  Cettinje,  looking  like  a  large  Ger- 
man country  village  with  roofs  of  red  tiles.  This 
is  without  doubt  the  most  primitive  capital  of 
Europe.  Words  almost  fail  to  express  its  plain- 
ness. But  it  is  a  place  worth  seeing,  and  after  a 
reasonable  halt  I  made  haste  to  traverse  in  the 
blazing  sun  the  two  or  three  miles  which  lay  be- 
tween the  rim  of  the  bowl  where  I  stood  and  the 
town. 

It  was  some  years  since  I  had  felt  myself  so  out 
of  the  world  as  I  did  up  there  among  the  mountains 
and  men  of  Slavic  speech.  I  betook  myself  to  a 
modest  inn,  Kraljevic  Al  Marco,  for  lunch.  After 
wrestling  to  my  satisfaction  with  Italian,  I  noticed 
that  the  landlady  turned  to  her  little  boy  and  said 
something  to  him  in  Greek.    Quick  as  a  flash  the 

217 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


ice  was  broken  and  we  were  talking  Greek  like 
lightning.  It  was  a  family  of  Greeks,  the  brother 
of  the  landlady  being  the  interpreter  at  the  Greek 
Consulate. 

After  an  hour  or  two  of  rest  they  showed  me 
about  the  town  for  awhile,  after  which  I  cut  loose  to 
see  things  for  myself.  What  a  plain  town  it  is ! 
The  palace  of  the  present  sovereign,  called  the  New 
Palace,  is  one  of  the  few  two-story  buildings  in  the 
place,  but  even  this  has  hardly  any  ornament  except 
four  pairs  of  attached  Corinthian  columns  on  each 
of  the  stories  at  the  front  side,  and  two  pairs  on 
each  of  the  other  sides.  The  so-called  "Old  Palace  " 
is  plainer  than  most  modern  jails.  The  one  build- 
ing of  interest  is  the  monastery,  in  which  lies  buried 
the  ancestor  of  the  ruling  family,  on  whose  sarcoph- 
agus the  Montenegrins  lay  their  hands  and  swear 
when  they  go  out  to  battle  to  be  good  and  true  sol- 
diers. And  they  have  kept  their  oaths  well.  These 
Montenegrins  are  simply  Servians  who  never  bowed 
the  knee  to  the  Turks.  It  has  occurred  more  than 
once  or  twice  that  a  Turkish  army  has  entered  this 
land  of  rocks  eighty  thousand  strong,  sweeping 
everything  before  it,  only  to  return  decimated,  if 
perchance  it  escaped  destruction.  There  is  a  round 
tower  in  the  rear  of  the  monastery,  on  which  the 
heads  of  Turks  used  to  be  nailed  up. 

It  was  good  luck  for  me  that  my  visit  fell  on 
Sunday,  for  the  men  were  in  their  best  dress.  Dress 

218 


DALMATIA 


did  not  make  the  man  ;  the  man  was  there  to  begin 
with.  There  was  hardly  an  adult  who  did  not  meas- 
ure over  six  feet ;  and  they  looked  every  inch  a 
man.  If  there  were  only  enough  of  them  they 
would  soon  settle  the  Eastern  question.  Alexander 
III.  of  Russia  knew  how  to  value  his  "only  faithful 
ally."  In  contrast  to  the  men,  the  women  look  like 
drudges.  The  male  sex  has  really  arrogated  to  it- 
self all  the  beauty,  a  result  that  has  come  about  from 
the  fact  that,  while  the  men  have  for  ages  borne 
arms  and  ranged  free,  the  women  have  been  the  till- 
ers of  the  scanty  soil  as  well  as  servants  of  all  work. 
Men  are  the  one  product  of  Montenegro.  The 
only  product  of  the  soil  beyond  the  grain  and  po- 
tatoes, which  afford  scanty  sustenance,  is  tobacco, 
which  is  good  and  cheap.  There  is  a  heavy  duty  on 
it  in  Austria,  something  like  two  hundred  per  cent. ; 
everybody  tries  to  smuggle  it  in,  and  the  trick  often 
succeeds. 

The  next  day  was  the  birthday  of  the  Crown 
Prince,  and  when  I  made  ready  to  depart  my  new 
friends  said,  "Of  course  you  are  going  to  stay  to 
the  great  festival,"  apparently  thinking  that  that 
was  what  I  came  for.  I  asked  if  the  young  man 
himself  was  to  be  present,  and  they  replied,  "  Oh  ! 
no."  "  Then,"  said  I,  "  I  think  I  will  not  be 
present  either."  So  I  got  off  at  half-past  two  in 
a  fierce  heat,  and  by  easy  stages,  meeting  as  I 
went  several  of  my  stalwart  third-class  fellow-pas- 

219 


VACATION   DAYS   IN  GREECE 


sengers,  I  reached  the  Galatea  in  season  for  a  good 
dinner. 

On  the  way  from  Cattaro  to  Spalato  the  chief 
object  of  interest  is  Ragusa,  a  strongly  fortified  city 
of  about  twelve  thousand  inhabitants,  which,  after 
maintaining  itself  as  a  free  republic  until  1805,  often 
leaning  upon  Venice  the  while,  went  in  the  next 
decade  through  great  vicissitudes,  being  in  181 1 
annexed  by  Napoleon  to  the  new  "  Kingdom  of 
Illym,"  and  in  18 14  falling  into  the  hands  of  Austria, 
so  good  at  taking  hold  but  so  slow  at  letting  go. 
But,  after  all  that  may  be  said  of  the  land-greed  of 
Austria,  it  has  been  no  evil  lot  for  Dalmatia  to  fall 
into  her  hands.  Austria  has  inherited — let  Professor 
Freeman  turn  over  in  his  grave  to  hear  it  said — the 
role  of  Rome  as  road-builder,  civilizer,  and  intro- 
ducer of  general  prosperity  along  this  coast.  She 
is  now  pushing  a  network  of  railroads  along  the 
coast  and  up  from  the  coast  towns  into  the  interior. 
Ragusa  has  a  very  Venetian  look  in  its  old  part  and 
a  very  nineteenth-century  look  in  its  new  part.  Its 
surroundings  are  almost  as  interesting  as  the  city 
itself.  On  the  lovely  island  Lacroma,  hard  by  on 
the  south,  is  a  church  founded  by  Richard  Coeur  de 
Lion.  Somewhat  farther  off  to  the  north,  on  the 
shore,  lies  Canosa,  ever  remembered  by  a  spring  of 
pure  water  shaded  by  two  gigantic  plane-trees  forty 
feet  in  circumference,  an  enchanted  spot.  At  or  near 
Ragusa  lay  the  Greek  city  Epidauros. 

220 


DALMATIA 


In  this  region  might  well  be  located  the  "  Islands 
of  the  Blessed " ;  for  here  we  begin  to  encounter 
islands  by  tens  and  dozens,  large  and  small.  The 
rest  of  the  journey  was  dodging  in  and  out  among 
islands.  We  have  lakes  in  America  which  boast 
their  three  hundred  and  sixty-five  islands,  one  for 
each  day  in  the  year ;  but  the  Dalmatian  islands  are 
not  to  be  counted  by  hundreds,  but  by  thousands, 
if  one  were  to  count  them  at  all.  They  are  generally 
spoken  of  as  innumerable.  Geologists  say  that  there 
has  been  here  a  subsidence  of  great  strips  of  land, 
and  that  the  sea  has  in  some  cases  broken  up  the  re- 
maining strips  into  pieces  of  a  size  to  suit  itself, 
ranging  from  fifty  rods  to  fifty  miles  in  length. 
Here  comes  the  infinite  charm  of  sailing  along  the 
Dalmatian  coast,  this  interlocking  of  sea  and  shore. 
No  wonder  that  the  Dalmatians  are  all  sailors,  woo- 
ers of  the  salt  sea  gale.  I  myself  longed  to  get  off 
the  steamer  and  get  into  one  of  the  numerous  sail- 
boats that  were  ploughing  through  the  dashing  waves. 

Had  the  Galatea  stopped  as  long  at  Spalato  as  it 
had  at  Cattaro,  I  should  have  been  tempted  to 
crowd  my  enjoyment  of  it  into  the  same  space  ;  but 
she  had  now  transformed  herself  into  an  express 
boat,  bent  on  reaching  Trieste  in  the  shortest  possi- 
ble time.  So,  with  some  regret,  I  left  my  hospitable 
quarters  on  my  floating  home  to  trust  myself  to  the 
welcome  of  an  inn. 

But  little  did  I  care  for  the  inn.    Within  a  quar* 

221 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

ter  of  an  hour  from  the  time  when  I  left  the  steamer 
I  was  in  the  heart  of  one  of  the  strangest  cities  of 
the  world,  threading  my  way  through  narrow  wind- 
ing streets,  passing  here  and  there  a  temple,  gener- 
ally embedded  in  some  later  building,  running  up 
against  a  continuous  wall  two  or  three  stories  high 
which  I  followed  until  I  found  a  gate  that  would 
let  me  go  through  it ;  then  I  followed  the  outside  of 
this  wall  until  I  found  another  gate  that  let  me  in 
again,  when  the  maze  again  engulfed  me.  I  was 
in  the  famous  Palace  of  Diocletian. 

The  city  Spalato  was  once  all  inside  the  palace 
(palatium),  and  got  its  name  from  that  fact ;  but  in 
later  years  the  city  has  so  grown  that  the  palace  is 
embedded  and  almost  lost  in  the  city.  In  order  to 
get  a  good  idea  of  the  city  and  palace  together  one 
should  climb  the  campanile,  a  fine  Romanesque 
structure,  incomparably  finer  than  that  the  loss  of 
which  Venice  now  mourns.  In  1882  it  became  nec- 
essary to  take  down  all  but  the  four  lower  stories  and 
rebuild.  Money  has  come  in  slowly,  and  the  stag- 
ing which  practically  hides  the  beautiful  campanile 
may  not  come  down  for  several  years  more.  The 
door  leading  into  this  immense  wooden  structure 
bore  the  legend,  Lingresso  e  vietato.  But  following 
a  maxim  hewn  from  life,  that  a  sightseer  must  al- 
ways go  on  until  he  is  stopped,  I  went  and  pushed 
my  way  through  the  workmen,  boss  and  all,  prob- 
ably with  a  more  assured  air  because  a  good  citizen 

222 


DALMATIA 


had  a  few  minutes  before  told  me,  "  You  will  see 
a  sign  saying  *  No  admittance,'  but  it  doesn't  mean 
anything." 

At  the  foot  of  the  campanile  is  an  Egyptian 
sphinx  whose  head  has  been  battered  by  a  falling 
stone.  The  natives  call  it  the  "  man-woman,"  and, 
curiously  enough,  they  call  the  sun  disk  between  its 
paws  "pogazza"  (a  loaf  of  bread),  a  roundabout 
corroboration  of  what  I  used  to  hear  in  childhood : 
"The  moon  is  made  of  green  cheese;  the  sun's  a 
loaf  of  bread."  The  view  from  the  top  is  fine, 
whether  you  look  landward  or  seaward  ;  but  the  real 
reward  of  the  climb  is  that  here  only  the  extent  and 
plan  of  the  palace  and  the  adjustment  of  the  build- 
ings within  it  become  perfectly  clear. 

The  term  "  palace  "  is  a  misnomer.  What  we  have 
is  really  an  enormous  enclosure,  a  sort  of  Roman 
camp.  The  area  is  trapezoidal;  in  other  words,  the 
sides  vary  in  length.  The  north  or  landward  side, 
which  is  the  longest,  has  a  length  of  700  feet.  The 
circuit  is  about  half  a  mile,  and  it  consumes  the  bet- 
ter part  of  half  an  hour  to  work  your  way  around  it. 
There  could,  of  course,  be  no  question  of  roofing 
over  such  a  space.  The  whole  area  was  divided  into 
four  approximately  equal  squares  by  two  great  pas- 
sages, one  thirty-six  feet  broad,  leading  from  the 
water  gate  on  the  south  side  called  the  Silver 
Gate,  through  which  the  imperial  barge  used  to 
sail  into  the  palace,  to  the  Golden  Gate  on  the 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

north  side,  the  other  running  from  the  Iron  Gate 
on  the  west  to  the  Bronze  Gate  on  the  east.  The 
first  of  these  ways  is  interrupted  near  the  south  end 
by  the  imperial  house  itself.  The  enclosing  wall  was 
fifty  feet  high  at  its  lowest  part,  and  was  seventy-five 
feet  high  near  the  sea  where  the  ground  fell  off,  so 
that  all  the  buildings,  sacred  and  profane,  distributed 
within  were  hidden  from  view  to  outsiders.  Not 
only  did  the  imperial  family,  but  courtiers  and  me- 
nials, making  a  population  of  some  thirty  thousand, 
have  quarters  here. 

The  builder  and  occupant  of  this  palace  was  the 
greatest  personality  of  the  Caesars  after  Marcus  Au- 
relius,  whom  in  military  and  administrative  force 
he  greatly  surpassed.  Entering  the  service  as  a 
simple  legionary,  he  rose  by  slow  degrees  of  service 
in  all  parts  of  the  empire  under  various  nonentities 
of  emperors,  until  at  Chalkedon,  in  284  a.d.,  the  sol- 
diers proclaimed  him  emperor.  There  is  a  legend 
that  a  Druid  priestess  had  prophesied  to  him  when 
he  was  serving  in  Belgium  under  Aurelian  that 
he  would  become  emperor  immediately  after  kill- 
ing a  boar.  It  is  said  that  he  saw  the  fulfilment 
of  this  prophecy  when  the  Emperor  Numerianus 
was  assassinated  at  Chalkedon  by  a  certain  Aper 
{i.e.,  boar),  whom  he  immediately  struck  down,  ex- 
claiming, "  I  have  killed  the  boar."  Of  course  there 
are  those  who  think  that  the  legend  grew  out  of  the 
name  of  the  assassin. 

224 


DALMATIA 


Diocletian's  name  will  ever  be  associated  with 
the  last  and  most  wide-reaching  and  systematic  per- 
secution of  the  Christians ;  but  this  policy  was  most 
likely  forced  upon  him  by  the  fanaticism  of  his  col. 
league,  Galerius.  At  this  time  the  Roman  Empire 
had  become  too  bulky  to  be  well  administered  by 
one  man,  however  able  and  conscientious,  and  of 
his  own  accord  he  associated  others  with  himself 
in  the  imperial  power,  confining  himself  entirely  to 
the  eastern  part.  Two  years  after  he  had  issued  at 
Nikomedia,  in  303  a.d.,  his  edict  of  persecution  of 
the  Christians,  the  cares  of  office  weighing  too  heav- 
ily upon  him,  he  laid  aside  the  purple,  retired  to 
Salona,  and  began  building  this  palace  about  four 
miles  distant  from  it.  When  his  withdrawal  was  so 
sorely  felt  that  he  was  importuned  to  resume  the 
imperial  power,  he  declined,  referring  to  the  sweet 
peace  which  he  enjoyed  among  his  cabbages  at 
Salona.  There  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  reason 
which  influenced  him  to  choose  Salona  as  his  place 
of  retirement  was  that  it  was  his  birthplace,  although 
the  Montenegrins  hold  that  they  have  the  true  birth- 
place in  Doclea,  not  far  from  Cettinje. 

But  the  old  Emperors  musings  in  his  great 
palace  must  have  been  sadder  than  Hadrian's  con- 
versings  with  his  soul  at  Tivoli.  Here  he  learned 
of  the  triumph  of  Christianity  through  Constantine, 
a  meaner  spirit  than  he.  Then  came  the  over- 
turning of  his  statues  at  Rome  and  the  banishment 

225 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


and  subsequent  butchery  of  his  wife  and  daughter. 
Added  to  all  this  was  a  painful  illness  ;  and  in  the 
eighth  year  of  his  residence  in  that  palace  where  he 
had  promised  himself  so  much  comfort  and  sweet 
peace,  to  adopt  the  words  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  that 
noblest  Roman  of  them  all,  he  "  found  the  house 
smoky  and  went  out." 

Beside  the  pathetic  interest  attaching  to  the  great 
founder  of  the  palace,  another  interest  attaches  to 
the  immuring  of  it  in  the  modern  city.  In  the 
seventh  century  Anno  Domini  waves  of  barbarians 
swept  down  along  the  coast  of  Dalmatra.  One  of 
these  was  composed  of  Avars — a  people  often  mixed 
up,  whether  rightly  or  wrongly,  with  the  Huns. 
Even  more  than  the  Huns  they  were  a  "  scourge  of 
God."  After  leaving  a  desert  in  their  trail,  butcher- 
ing men  and  yoking  women  to  their  carts,  they 
came  into  this  lovely  region,  destroyed  the  great 
city,  and  then  decided  to  settle  down  here.  There 
was  a  grand  scattering  of  the  degenerate  Romans, 
who  had  been  unable  to  hold  their  own,  to  the 
neighboring  islands,  but  after  awhile  a  remnant 
came  back  and  occupied  the  palace,  which  was  fairly 
well  adapted  to  be  used  as  a  fort.  Here  they  defied 
the  Avars,  and  at  last  outstayed  them.  The  result 
was  the  present  city  of  Spalato. 

One's  first  impression  is  that  the  palace,  although 
tremendously  impressive  from  the  outside  wherever 
that  is  visible,  has  yet  suffered  immensely  from  its 

226 


DALMATIA 


partial  burial  in  the  modern  city.  The  two  temples 
within  were  much  more  buried  than  the  great  wall, 
and  have  been  only  partially  brought  to  light  again. 
But  in  another  aspect  of  the  case  the  modern  city 
saved  the  palace.  Had  the  latter  stood  by  itself  it 
would  have  been  treated  as  a  stone  quarry,  like  so 
many  ancient  cities,  Salona  itself,  for  example. 
Now  there  is  hope  that  by  removing  here  and  there 
a  modern  building — a  process  that  was  begun  some 
time  ago — the  greater  part  of  the  palace  may  be  re- 
stored to  the  light  of  day.  In  fact,  the  Porta  Aurea 
has  quite  recently  been  freed  from  encumbrances 
and,  even  without  being  restored,  makes  a  fine  im- 
pression. 

From  all  that  one  now  sees  it  is  clear  that  the 
architecture,  though  impressive  as  a  whole,  is  shabby 
when  examined  in  detail.  The  exquisite  finish  of 
the  Greek  is,  of  course,  lacking.  But  even  com- 
pared with  some  other  Roman  work  it  is  seen  to 
have  been  hastily  done.  Its  nearest  parallel  is 
found  in  Palmyra,  which  was  restored  by  Diocle- 
tian. 

The  enclosing  wall  has  half  columns  of  the  Doric 
order  in  a  lower  story  and  Ionic  half  columns  in  a 
second.  Of  the  buildings  inside,  the  "  peristyle  "  in 
front  of  the  royal  residence  makes  the  best  impres- 
sion, because  the  space  enclosed  by  it  was  thoroughly 
cleared  out  by  the  Emperor  Francis  I.  of  Austria, 
nearly  a  century  ago,  a  benefaction  duly  recorded  on 

227 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

a  tablet  inserted  in  an  adjacent  wall.  Many  of  the 
columns  of  the  peristyle  itself,  however,  are  still  half 
embedded  in  the  walls  of  buildings  too  important 
to  be  torn  down.  A  building  which  is  now  gen- 
erally identified  with  the  mausoleum  of  Diocletian 
forms  the  present  cathedral,  the  campanile  of  which 
caused  the  destruction  of  a  portion  of  a  peristyle 
enclosing  the  mausoleum.  This  mausoleum  is  a 
round  building  like  the  Pantheon,  and  like  the  lat- 
ter has  a  perfectly  preserved  dome  which,  unlike 
that  of  the  Pantheon,  was  not  open  at  the  top. 
About  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago  the  interior  was 
restored  under  the  auspices  of  the  ill-matched  and 
ill-fated  Rudolf  and  Stephanie,  who  are  mentioned 
on  a  conspicuous  tablet,  not  as  furnishing  any  cash 
for  the  enterprise,  but  as  presentibus  et  opus  admi- 
rantibus.  The  interior,  forty-two  feet  in  diameter, 
with  eight  large  columns  framing  four  niches  and 
bearing  eight  smaller  columns  superimposed,  makes 
a  fine  impression,  although  the  space  seems  rather 
small  for  a  cathedral.  A  sculptured  frieze  encircling 
the  dome  at  the  bottom,  and  containing,  among 
other  things,  hunting  scenes,  must  be  catalogued  as 
"  shapeless  sculpture." 

After  being  presens  and  admirans  for  half  a  day, 
wherever  I  could  enter  and  climb,  I  sought  out 
Father  Bulich,  the  director  of  the  museum  as  well 
as  supervisor  of  all  the  archaeological  interests  and 
undertakings  of  Spalato  and  Salona,  in  order  to 

228 


DALMATIA 

get  him  to  show  me  the  things  that  were  under 
lock  and  key.  I  found  him  at  his  house  dickering 
with  some  visitors  for  antiquities,  and  the  last  I 
saw  of  him,  two  days  later,  he  was  engaged  in  the 
same  occupation.  Nothing  could  exceed  his  cor- 
diality and  his  active  help.  As  soon  as  he  could  get 
rid  of  his  visitors  he  brought  out  all  the  best  works 
on  Spalato,  some  of  them  loaded  with  illustrations, 
and  sent  them  around  to  my  hotel.  Unfortunately, 
I  could  not  get  half  time,  even  by  sitting  up  all 
night,  to  read  any  large  part  of  them.  Then  he 
took  me  over  three  of  his  five  or  six  small  museums 
with  which  he  has  to  put  up  instead  of  the  large  one 
for  which  he  prays  as  well  as  labors.  But  though 
he  has  done  much  to  bring  order  out  of  the  chaos 
which  he  found,  some  luckier  man  than  he  will 
probably  be  the  arranger  of  the  museum  of  Spalato 
worthy  of  the  name.  Amid  much  that  is  common 
and  uninteresting,  and  yet  too  good  to  throw  away, 
are  objects  of  great  value  and  importance.  Nearly 
everything  is  from  Salona.  He  has  catalogued  and 
published  nearly  two  thousand  seven  hundred  in- 
scriptions. Gems  are  strongly  represented,  as  well 
as  coins  and  other  small  objects.  Sculpture,  aside 
from  some  good  fragments,  is  represented  mostly 
by  sarcophagi,  very  few  of  which  rise  above  medi- 
ocrity. It  is  interesting  to  see  here,  as  elsewhere,  a 
sarcophagus  with  the  representation  of  Phaedra  and 

Hippolytos  spared  by  the  Christians,  who  took 

229 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 


Hippolytos  as  the  "  chaste  Joseph."  The  oldest 
object  in  any  of  the  museums  is  a  sphinx  shown 
by  an  inscription  to  belong  to  Amenophis  III., 
the  Memnon  of  the  Greeks,  of  about  1500  b.c. 
In  one  museum  is  a  cast  of  a  really  fine  head  of 
Herakles,  found  in  the  neighborhood  but  kept  by 
the  monks  at  Sinj. 

Of  objects  which  did  not  come  from  Salona 
may  be  mentioned  certain  Greek  inscriptions  which 
show  the  presence  of  Greeks  on  these  coasts  and 
islands  long  before  the  great  days  of  Rome.  Of 
course  it  was  unlikely  that,  having  put  a  girdle  of 
colonies  around  southern  Italy,  and  pushed  up 
along  the  eastern  shore  of  the  Adriatic  as  far  as 
Epidauros  (Ragusa),  they  should  remain  strangers  to 
this  region  so  crowded  with  islands,  just  their  kind. 

Father  Bulich  took  me  also  into  the  one  building 
inside  the  palace  that  is  kept  locked.  Its  chief  at- 
traction is  a  perfectly  preserved  barrel  vault  with 
coffers  containing  rosettes.  This  is  supposed,  partly 
from  its  position,  to  have  been  Diocletian's  court 
chapel  ;  but  whether  it  was  dedicated  to  Jupiter  or 
to  iEsculapius  is  a  question  which  divides  the  au- 
thorities. Lanza,  Bulich's  predecessor,  inferred  from 
a  laurel  wreath  bound  by  a  ribbon  which  he  took 
to  be  the  imperial  crown,  sculptured  in  the  rear 
gable,  that  this  was  Diocletian's  mausoleum.  This 
rear  end  was  said  by  the  guide-books  to  be  inacces- 
sible, and  so  of  course  it  was  what  I  most  wanted 

230 


DALMATIA 


to  see.  I  mentioned  my  regret,  and,  to  my  sur- 
prise, Bulich  said,  "  Oh  !  it  is  perfectly  accessible." 
Then  he  led  the  way  through  several  by-ways  and 
up  three  flights  of  stairs,  almost  tumbling  over 
children  in  the  dim  light,  until  at  last  we  got  into 
a  kitchen  which  was  backed  up  against  the  gable. 
There  was  the  laurel  wreath,  to  be  sure.  Little  did 
it  interest  the  rosy-cheeked  woman  who  had  her 
sleeves  rolled  up  above  her  elbows  and  was  trying 
in  some  embarrassment  to  get  them  down  again 
before  a  stranger.  The  wreath  was  out  of  her 
reach  ;  but  the  horizontal  cornice  of  the  gable  was 
only  about  four  feet  above  the  floor  of  her  kitchen  ; 
and  she  had  deployed  upon  it — a  splendid  shelf — her 
oils  and  essences,  her  butter  and  sugar,  and  all  the 
appliances  of  a  kitchen  and  a  pantry.  When  Bu- 
lich, with  all  the  authority  of  an  archaeologist  and  a 
father  confessor  combined,  reproved  her  for  quite  a 
good-sized,  fresh  nick  on  the  left  ascending  cornice, 
her  cheeks  and  even  her  arms  took  on  a  redder 
hue,  probably  on  account  of  my  presence ;  for  the 
priest  was  greeted  on  every  staircase  as  a  familiar 
friend. 

The  next  day  he  showed  me  his  excavations  at 
Salona,  which  he  has  carried  on  under  great  difficul- 
ties. Since  the  Austrian  empire  has  no  law  for 
the  expropriation  of  private  property  for  the  pur- 
pose of  archaeological  excavations,  he  has  been 
obliged  with  his  not  all  too  generous  funds  to  make 

231 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

his  peace  with  the  owners  of  the  fields ;  and,  since 
the  whole  area  of  Salona  is  covered  by  one  continu- 
ous vineyard,  it  has  been  very  slow  business.  But 
he  has  managed  to  get  a  foothold  here  and  there. 
Here  the  greater  part  of  a  big  amphitheatre  has 
been  uncovered,  here  a  long  line  of  sarcophagi ;  at 
present  he  is  pushing  a  few  yards  farther  the  un- 
covering of  a  huge  Christian  basilica. 

There  had  been  no  great  surprises  for  me  at 
Spalato ;  but  Salona,  which  had  been  to  me  a  mere 
name,  now  suddenly  loomed  large  before  my  vi- 
sion as  the  great  city  of  the  Occident  next  to  Rome. 
Three  things  made  Salona  what  it  was.  It  had  in 
the  first  place  a  fine  harbor  at  the  end  of  a  deep 
bay.  The  silting  up  of  the  harbor  in  modern  times 
has  brought  it  a  little  farther  from  the  water's  edge  ; 
but  that  the  water  once  lapped  its  walls  is  shown 
by  its  water  gate.  Secondly,  just  back  of  Salona 
there  is  a  great  gap  in  the  long  chain  of  mountains 
that  follow  the  shore  at  a  little  interval  as  far  as 
the  eye  can  reach.  Through  this  gap  a  great  road 
led  into  the  heart  of  the  Balkan  peninsula  through 
what  is  now  known  as  Bosnia  and  Servia  to  the 
Danube  and  beyond.  Thirdly,  the  region  back  of 
the  gap  was  vastly  important  to  the  Romans  as  a 
gold-bearing  land.  In  the  times  of  Augustus  and 
Tiberius  gold  was  commonly  referred  to  by  the  poets 
as  "  Dalmatian  ore."  Salona  was  the  place  where 
all  this  gold  was  gathered  for  transmission  to  Rome. 

232 


DALMATIA 

The  Romans'  greed  for  gold  was  here  seen  in  its 
sharpest  phase.  They  dug  miles  into  the  heart  of 
mountains,  and  carried  water  hundreds  of  miles  in 
artificial  channels  for  washing  deposits  of  gold. 
Perhaps  no  one  can  ever  convey  or  even  conceive 
of  the  horror  of  the  life  of  slaves  in  these  works.  In 
droves  of  tens  of  thousands,  many  of  them  made 
slaves  instead  of  masters  by  the  mere  fortune  of 
war,  they  were  driven  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth 
with  poor  chance  of  seeing  the  light  again.  It  is,  at 
any  rate,  a  fact  that  months  passed  without  such  re- 
emergence,  a  fact  which  lessened  the  likelihood  of 
any  re-emergence  at  all.  In  that  great  and  cruel 
empire,  slave  life  counted  for  little ;  the  supply  was 
abundant. 

Arthur  Evans,  who  has  recently  given  back  to  us 
the  palace  of  Minos,  made  in  a  series  of  essays  some 
twenty-five  years  ago  what  French  savants  would 
call  a  "most  penetrating  study"  of  the  roads  and 
mines  of  Dalmatiaand  adjacent  regions.  Realizing 
from  this  book  the  importance  of  this  great  high- 
way from  Salona,  and  being  already  strongly  lured 
by  the  sight  of  that  great  yawning  gap  in  the 
mountain  range,  I  took  advantage  of  the  fact  that 
my  appointment  with  Bulich  was  not  until  four 
o'clock  to  make  the  day  a  day  of  exploration. 
Taking  an  early  start,  I  worked  my  way  up  to  the 
top  of  the  pass  over  a  road  laid  out  with  such  a 
gentle  grade  that  I  was  able  to  bicycle  over  nine- 

233 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

tenths  of  the  distance.  Arrived  at  the  top,  I  went 
on  by  a  gentle  down  grade  four  or  five  miles  into 
the  interior  toward  Sinj ;  but,  finding  no  command- 
ing point  of  view,  I  returned  to  the  top  of  the  pass. 
From  this  point  the  view  can  hardly  be  overpraised. 
Exactly  in  the  middle  of  the  deep  cut  is  Clissa,  a 
sharp  cone,  on  the  truncated  top  of  which  is  a  strong 
fortress  with  a  straggling  village  on  the  slope  facing 
Spalato.  Although  there  are  no  evident  remains 
of  masonry  in  the  fort  earlier  than  the  mediaeval 
period,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  fortress  prime- 
val existed  here.  For  once  Baedeker  deceived  me 
in  saying  that  admission  to  the  fortress  would  be 
granted  on  presentation  of  a  visiting  card.  The 
non-commissioned  officer  in  charge  stood  by  his 
guns,  and,  in  spite  of  all  importunity,  refused  admis- 
sion except  on  the  strength  of  a  written  permit 
from  the  commandant  at  Spalato.  So  I  contented 
myself  with  a  view  from  a  point  outside  the  walls 
some  twenty  feet  lower  down.  Since  it  is  mainly 
the  view  toward  Spalato  and  the  sea  that  is  impor- 
tant, there  was  practically  nothing  lost.  There  was 
just  a  little  feeling  of  defeat,  of  being  baffled  in  an 
attempt  to  reach  the  highest  height.  A  railroad  is 
just  now  approaching  completion  from  Spalato  up 
through  this  gap  to  Sinj.  When  it  is  finished  visit- 
ors can  enjoy  from  its  many  windings  all  this  fine 
view  at  their  ease. 

In  twenty  minutes  I  dropped  down  to  Salona, 

234 


DALMATIA 

and  devoted  the  rest  of  the  day  to  exploring  the 
territory  of  Spalato  westward  as  far  as  Trau,  its 
ancient  rival.  Every  foot  of  this  shore  is  beautiful ; 
but  Trau  itself  surpasses  all  praise.  Its  cathedral,  in 
Romanesque  style,  is  complete  and  unencumbered 
with  later  additions.  The  great  west  portal,  with 
the  figures  of  Adam  and  Eve  to  the  right  and  left, 
is  held  by  good  judges  to  be  unsurpassed  by  any 
other  portal,  whether  Romanesque  or  Gothic.  The 
campanile  alone  is  Gothic,  showing  that  it  was 
somewhat  later.  It  is  to  be  noted,  however,  that  the 
transition  from  Romanesque  to  Gothic  all  along 
this  shore  was  nearly  a  century  later  than  elsewhere. 
There  are  other  beautiful  churches  in  Trau,  some  of 
them  in  ruins.  In  fact,  stagnation  almost  complete 
has  struck  the  town,  which  is  crowded  into  a  very 
narrow  space  on  a  diminutive  island.  Its  streets 
are  not  broad  enough  for  carriages.  There  is  a 
Venetian  loggia  near  the  cathedral,  with  columns 
that  had  seen  service  elsewhere.  Its  flat  roof  has 
tumbled  in  and  been  replaced  by  a  makeshift. 
There  is  a  fascination  in  this  absolute  inertia  which 
contrasts  with  the  growth  and  activity  of  Spalato, 
only  twelve  miles  away  in  a  straight  line.  Seven 
or  eight  centuries  ago  these  two  rivals  would  have 
torn  each  other  in  pieces  but  for  the  stern  yet,  on 
the  whole,  beneficent  rule  of  Venice,  tokens  of 
which,  in  the  form  of  the  lion  of  St.  Mark,  ap- 
pear all  along  the  coast,  but  especially  in  Trau, 

235 


VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

where  they  have  not  been  removed.  "Trail"  is  an 
abridgment  of  Tugurium,  the  Roman  name  of  the 
place  ;  but  it  had  an  existence  in  Greek  times,  be- 
ing founded  by  Syracusan  Greeks  who  came  by 
way  of  the  neighboring  island,  Lissa.  I  saw  one 
Greek  inscription  walled  into  a  house  near  the 
landing. 

At  four  o'clock  on  this  day  of  surfeits  I  met 
Bulich  at  the  railroad  station,  "  Salona."  He  came 
with  a  select  international  party,  and  for  four  hours, 
with  tremendous  enthusiasm,  showed  us  all  about 
his  excavation,  and  then  took  us  to  his  excavation 
quarters,  which  he  calls  Villa  Tusculum,  for  a  fine 
supper.  I  verily  believe  that  had  not  darkness 
come  on  he  would  have  forgotten  all  about  that 
supper,  which  was,  if  not  a  climax,  certainly  a  fit- 
ting close  to  a  memorable  day. 

A  most  striking  feature  of  Spalato  is  the  beauty 
of  the  women.  For  some  considerable  time  I  had 
been  struck  by  isolated  cases ;  but  one  evening,  as 
I  sat  at  a  cafe  on  the  water  front  where  crowds 
were  leisurely  passing,  I  noticed  nursery-maids  and 
others  of  the  servant  class  endowed  with  beauty 
which  a  duchess  might  sigh  for.  I  have  never  set 
much  store  by  statements  which  make  certain  cities — 
Genzano,  near  Rome,  for  instance — noted  for  beauti- 
ful women,  and  so  I  called  myself  to  a  rigid  account 
in  this  case,  and  there  was  no  mistaking  the  cumula- 
tive evidence  collected  in  cold  blood.    To  control 

236 


DALMATIA 


my  own  impression  I  asked  Bulich,  the  aged,  the 
next  day  whether  I  was  mistaken.  "  Certainly  not," 
said  he,  "you  are  making  no  new  discovery."  But, 
lest  he  should  be  considered  a  prejudiced  witness, 
influenced  by  local  pride,  I  appeal  to  the  next 
traveller  to  look  up  the  matter.  He  should,  how- 
ever, first  prepare  his  mind  by  visiting  Montenegro. 

Knots  of  men,  also,  who  had  come  in  from  the 
country  or  from  coasting  boats,  peasantry  of  the 
region,  men  of  Slavic  race,  called  here  Morlaks, 
contributed  to  the  picturesqueness  of  the  crowd. 
Four  such  men,  wearing  great  red  and  yellow  tur- 
bans, jackets  covered  with  embroidery  and  buttons, 
great  red  sashes,  and  indescribable  leg  and  foot 
coverings,  attracted  little  attention  as  they  passed 
and  repassed  the  cafe  where  I  sat,  simply  because 
they  were  not  much  more  conspicuous  than  many 
other  similar  groups.  Transfer  some  of  these 
groups  of  men  and  women  to  canvas  with  photo- 
graphic exactness,  color  included,  and  you  have 
Titian.  It  seems  a  pity  that  "die  Kultur  die  alle 
Welt  beleckt "  should  ever  reach  this  sweet  corner 
and  reduce  all  this  exuberance  of  color  and  form  to 
a  dead  level.  The  modern  tailor  ought  not  to  be 
allowed  to  enter  here  with  his  profane  shears  and 
fashion  plates. 

Continuing  my  journey  from  Spalato,  I  profited 
by  an  hours  stop  at  Trau  to  review  the  cathedral. 
When  we  had  proceeded  two-thirds  of  the  way  from 

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VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

Spalato  to  Sebenico,  and  had  just  got  into  the  har- 
bor of  Ragonitzka,  we  were  struck  by  a  hurricane 
which  subsequently  softened  down  into  a  regular 
"  bora,"  for  which  Dalmatia  is  famous.  For  a  few 
minutes  paper  parcels  and  even  a  pile  of  books  were 
blown  about  the  deck ;  but  to  my  surprise  certain 
little  red  disks  on  the  top  of  the  bare  heads  of  some 
of  the  passengers  held  their  places.  I  then  dis- 
covered on  careful  scrutiny  that  they  were  held 
in  place  by  a  string  carefully  concealed  in  the  hair 
back  of  the  ears.  I  then  made  a  study  of  these 
disks.  They  merely  rested  on  the  top  of  the  head, 
and  could  in  no  sense  be  regarded  as  a  covering 
for  it.  It  would  be  an  exaggeration  to  say  that 
they  were  no  bigger  than  a  ten-cent  piece,  but  not 
so  very  much  of  an  exaggeration.  To  be  as  exact  as 
possible  without  actual  measurements,  I  should  say 
that  the  diameter  of  most  of  these  was  three  or  four 
inches.  The  wearers  of  them  were  often  clad  in 
an  ordinary  modern  suit  of  clothes.  In  Sebenico  I 
continued  my  comparative  study  of  these  red  disks. 
I  then  found  some  that  nearly  covered  the  top  of 
the  head,  and  at  last  a  few  cases  that  had  a  slight 
extension  downward  all  around  the  head.  This 
made  it  clear  that  it  was  intended  for  a  cap.  It 
furthermore  appeared  that  the  more  a  fellow  par- 
took of  the  nature  of  a  "  howling  swell  "  the  smaller 
was  his  disk.  It  became  perfectly  clear,  then,  that 
we  have  in  Sebenico  a  case  not  of  the  development 

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DALMATIA 


but  of  the  disappearance  of  the  cap,  what  is  left 
being  only  symbolical,  the  antithesis  of  the  "  tall 
hat" 

We  had  four  or  five  hours  in  Sebenico,  and  I 
spent  most  of  the  time  in  visiting  two  great  dis- 
carded forts  on  high  hills  back  of  the  city.  It 
would  have  been  worth  while  to  stop  and  wait  for 
another  steamer  in  order  to  make  an  excursion 
into  the  interior;  but  I  had  had  almost  a  surfeit  of 
fine  views,  and  kept  on  my  course.  Sebenico  is 
one  of  the  strangest  of  harbors.  After  heading 
for  it  the  steamer  has  to  dodge  around  island  after 
island,  and  at  last,  wThen  it  seems  confronted  by  a 
continuous  coast  line,  it  finds  a  little  break  through 
which  it  goes  in  and  finds  itself  in  a  broad  bay. 
When  one  looks  back  one  wonders  how  he  ever  got 
so  far  inland  with  a  steamer,  and  how  he  is  ever 
going  to  get  out  again  to  the  sea  that  looks  so  far 
away.  From  its  sheltered  situation,  Sebenico  was 
for  ages  a  pirates'  nest.  The  hand  of  Venice  was 
here  also  needed  to  keep  Sebenico  from  preying  on 
her  neighbors,  Trail  and  Spalato.  Now  all  the  jar- 
ring states  rest  quietly  in  the  bosom  of  Austria,  ex- 
cept that  the  contention  between  the  old  Italian 
civilization  and  the  new  and  aggressive  Slave  ele- 
ment grows  ever  fiercer,  with  the  danger  that  the 
Italian  element  will  be  crowded  to  the  wall. 

In  about  four  hours  after  leaving  Sebenico  we 
were  at  Zara,  which  enjoys  the  double  distinction  of 

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VACATION  DAYS  IN  GREECE 

being  the  capital  of  Dalmatia  and  the  home  of 
maraschino.  It  has  several  churches  of  absorbing 
interest,  both  for  their  architecture  and  for  their 
contents.  Although  it  has  lost  immensely  in  pict- 
uresqueness  by  the  tearing  down  of  its  old  walls,  it 
is  still  a  beautiful  city;  but  it  is  a  modern  kind 
of  beauty,  which  has  come  from  broad  boulevards 
taking  the  place  of  the  landward  wall,  and  a  splen- 
did quay  taking  the  place  of  the  sea  wall.  Austrian 
officers  in  fine  uniforms  set  the  tone.  It  has  almost 
too  much  of  an  air  of  thrift  to  be  picturesque.  One 
sees  everywhere,  signs  of  maraschino  factories, 
maraschino  stores,  and  maraschino  cafes. 

As  I  sat  in  front  of  a  cafe  on  the  modern  quay, 
sipping  my  second  glass  of  maraschino  at  what 
claimed  to  be  the  original  maraschino  establishment 
in  the  city,  and  looked  off  at  the  eight  Austrian 
war-ships  lying  off  the  shore,  a  feeling  of  "  change 
from  the  old  to  the  new  "  came  over  me.  Just  then 
such  a  sunset  as  is  rarely  vouchsafed  to  man  was 
transpiring.  The  blood-red  sun  of  double  size  was 
setting  in  the  illumined  sea.  I  took  it  as  a  signal 
that  my  Dalmatian  journey  was  at  an  end.  Pola  and 
Fiume  I  already  knew,  and  Trieste  was  a  common 
mart.    I  went  back  to  the  steamer. 


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